In 1944, the Red Army invaded Romania in the Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, causing the overthrow of Ion Antonescu's regime via a Royal coup.

[11][12][13] From May 1955 to 1991, Romania was a member of the Warsaw Pact, which provided the Romanian Army with weapons, other Soviet-made equipment, and assistance in building up its own defense industry.

[14] Under the presidency of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the RPA asserted functional independence in the defense industry and on equipment acquisitions while maintaining strong ties to the Warsaw Pact Command, with many of its armored vehicles, aircraft and artillery, as well as individual weaponry, being nationally produced.

[15] The Armed Forces would be renamed in 1989 following the Romanian Revolution, during which officers and personnel of the military defected to the side of the opposition after a public speech by Ceaușescu broadcast on state television[16] and a firing squad provided by paratroop regiment personnel Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cîrlan took part in the Trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu on 26 December.

As of 1985, the Army was organized into the following service branches:[20] Several other branches were not part of the Ministry of National Defense but were directly controlled by the Romanian Army or the PCR:[20] A distinctive feature of the system of manning the RAF armed forces was the continued possibility of conscription of women for military service (although the bulk of the female military personnel serving at that time were doctors, nurses, and radio communications operators).

Disbanded by the Soviets in the early years of occupied and post-war Romania, the Vânători de munte (Mountain Huntsmen) was re-established in 1958.

In September 1944, the Soviet Navy transferred all Romanian warships to ports in the Caucasus near Azerbaijan and Georgia, all of which were not returned until just over a year later, with the exception o the Regele Ferdinand-class that was kept by the Black Sea Fleet until the early 1950s.

[26] In the early 1980s, the Navy ramped up efforts to develop its domestic naval industry by building new patrol boats using Chinese and Soviet technology and designs.

[29] Following a condition imposed during the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947, the strength of the military aviation of Romania was reduced to 150 aircraft, of which 100 were for combat and the rest for training.

A Romanian-made IAR-93 attack aircraft flew its first flight on 31 October 1974 over Bacău,[33] marking the first jet fighter in the Eastern Bloc to be domestically manufactured.

Formed in 1968 after Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968, the Romanian Patriotic Guards was an organization dedicated to public security, with its functions including civil policing to an active reserve for the Army.

The force was not part of the Ministry of National Defence but was a direct reporting unit of the PCR and the Union of Communist Youth, of which it drafted members of both.

Members of the guards were considered territorial troops (Forțele teritoriale), as they were organized into companies and/or platoons and were based in every județ, municipality, and industrial/agricultural area under the command of the first secretary of the local PCR.

The security troops were directly responsible to the Minister of the Interior and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, allowing them to guard important installations, including PCR office buildings and state radio and television stations.

[35] The regime of Ceaușescu could have theoretically called in the security troops as a private army to prevent a military coup d'état and/or suppress antiregime riots.

[35] In late 1989, the directorate was disbanded and replaced first by the Guard and Order Troops (Trupele de Pază și Ordine) and later on by the reformed Gendarmerie.