Romania deploys F-16 fighter jets after drones spotted near Ukraine
Photo: F-16 fighter pilot (Getty Images)
On Thursday, the Romanian authorities issued an emergency warning for residents of the northern part of Tulcea County due to drones near the border with Ukraine. Two F-16 fighters were scrambled into the air, according to Digi24.
What the radars detected
According to Romania's Ministry of Defense, at 21:12, two F-16 fighters were launched from the 86th Air Base at Borcea to monitor the situation after the radar system detected a group of aerial targets near the river border with Ukraine.
What happened next
Later, the ministry clarified that the radar system had detected intermittent signals of aerial targets near the river border – they were in national airspace for about 20 seconds at approximately 21:14, after which they crossed the border toward Ukraine.
What the authorities did
The National Military Command Center notified the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations to implement measures to warn the population of Tulcea County – from there, an emergency alert was sent to residents via the emergency warning system.
Authorities advised residents to take shelter, warning of the possible fall of objects from the airspace. Residents of northern Tulcea County had already received a similar warning on the morning of the same Thursday.
Drones had violated Romanian airspace before – over the course of three days, the country shot down three drones, spending €1.5 million — about $400,000 per drone.
The first such incident occurred on July 24, when a Romanian F-16 destroyed a drone that had entered the country's airspace – the prosecutor's office later confirmed that it was a Russian Shahed drone. The following day, the Romanian Air Force intercepted another enemy drone, and on the morning of July 26, a third one.
During one of these incidents, NATO scrambled four fighter jets at once – two Romanian F-16s and two Italian Eurofighters. After the third drone was shot down, Romania's Foreign Ministry also summoned the Russian ambassador.
