NATO fighter jet downs drone over Romania after Moldova incursion
A Spanish Air Force F-18 shot down an unidentified drone that had violated Romanian airspace overnight on 15-16 August, marking the fourth such incident in the country.
Romania's Ministry of National Defence reported that at around 04:44 on Sunday, its surveillance systems detected an aerial object that had entered Romanian airspace from Moldova, roughly 24 kilometres north of the city of Galați.
An F-18 aircraft of the Spanish Air and Space Force, flying a combat air patrol out of the 57th Air Base at Mihail Kogălniceanu, established radar contact with the object and was authorised to shoot it down. The jet destroyed the drone at 05:01 over an unpopulated area. Debris is believed to have landed between the villages of Băleni and Cudalbi in Galați County. The all-clear was issued at 05:20.
Romania's acting Defence Minister, Radu Miruță, praised both the Spanish pilots and Romanian military staff for the successful operation. Writing on Facebook, he said Romania was defending its airspace with the backing of its allies, and that vigilance, quick response and allied solidarity formed the real basis of the country's security.
Pattern of incidents
This marked the fourth time a drone breaching Romanian airspace has been shot down over the country. On 26 July, Romania downed an intruding drone for a third straight day. Before that, President Nicușor Dan said a drone had been shot down 10 kilometres west of Sfântu Gheorghe on 25 July. The first combat interception of such a UAV over Romania — later identified as a Shahed-type drone — occurred on 24 July.
These events followed a series of earlier incidents in which Russian drones entered Romanian territory and crashed, mainly in areas along the Danube near the border, during Russian strikes on Ukrainian ports.
