The Romanian Air Force has intercepted and destroyed unmanned aerial vehicles in its airspace on three consecutive days.
Following an initial incident on Friday near Padina in Buzău County, the Ministry of Defense in Bucharest reported further downings on Saturday near Sfântu Gheorghe and on Sunday morning in the area of the border town of Sulina in the Danube Delta. The missions were carried out by F-16 fighter jets scrambled for airspace surveillance. According to authorities, the downings occurred over uninhabited territory, thus ruling out any danger to civilians on the ground.
Following an examination of the debris from Friday's incident, the Romanian public prosecutor's office confirmed that it was a Shahed drone. This type of drone is used by Russian forces in the regional conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The interception operations over the weekend mark an intensification of military measures along the approximately 600-kilometer-long Romanian border with Ukraine. In the past, debris from Russian drones that missed their targets during attacks on Ukrainian Danube Delta ports has repeatedly landed on Romanian territory.
To be able to respond legally and operationally to such border violations, the Romanian parliament amended the legal framework last year. This allows the armed forces to specifically target and engage unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) within their own territory. Previously, the military leadership had primarily limited itself to observing and securing the impact sites in cases of border incursions. The direct engagement of UAVs with air-to-air missiles by F-16 interceptors illustrates a changed operational doctrine in the border region of NATO's eastern flank.
Military experts point out that intercepting relatively inexpensive drones with state-of-the-art fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles incurs high operational costs and ties up logistical resources. Furthermore, the use of anti-aircraft weapons near the border carries the risk of unintended escalation or misfires. Nevertheless, the government in Bucharest feels compelled to demonstrate strength in order to underscore the inviolability of its airspace against cross-border military activities.