F-2000

The F-2000 is a mobile signal centre for army corps and army level, of Romanian design, made by Electromagnetica in Bucharest [1]. It was conceived as a modular set of interconnected special vehicles: 26 vehicle types (F-2001 to F-2026) formed stations for receiving and testing circuits, automatic switching, encryption and multiplexing of telephone and telegraph channels, links to the radio and radio relay groups, power supply, military post and others, all equipped with Romanian-made equipment [1]. Electromagnetica’s Special Production Factory coordinated it, with specialists from the repair base 191 RTT, which designed and built the telephone exchange vehicles for 100 and 200 lines (F-2010, F-2011), the long-distance telephone vehicle (F-2013), the dispatch vehicle (F-2022) and a cable-transport and rest vehicle (F-2026) [1][2]. By 1989 ten vehicle types had been approved and issued to signal units; a second stage was to link the vehicles by optical fibre and 10–30 GHz radio relays, but after the army’s reorganisation and NATO accession the project was abandoned [1].

According to the memoirs of an army representative, the interconnection system could not be completed, and the defence minister, General Milea, ordered the work to stop at a meeting at the army’s institute in Clinceni [3]. The book’s editors note that these memoirs contain some errors, especially in the names of equipment [3].