Romanian F-16s shoot down two jet-powered drones over the Black Sea, defence ministry says

Two Romanian F-16 fighters shot down two jet-powered attack drones over Romania’s territorial waters in the Black Sea on the evening of Saturday 17 October, the Ministry of National Defence announced. The ministry’s statements also describe a week of repeated drone activity near the Ukrainian border.

What the ministry says happened

According to the ministry’s updated press notice, the radar surveillance system detected a group of aerial targets about 120 kilometres east of Snake Island, moving in a south-westerly direction. Two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force, on air policing duty from the 86th Air Base at Borcea, took off at 17:43 local time.

The ministry said the targets were Geran-family attack drones with jet propulsion. The first was shot down at 18:01 south-east of Sulina, after spending two minutes in national airspace. The second was shot down at 18:05 east of Sulina, after five minutes in national airspace. Both were brought down over Romanian territorial waters. The ministry’s statement does not say who launched the drones.

A week of incidents

The ministry recalled that in the previous week its radar had picked up aerial targets in Ukrainian airspace close to the Romanian border on eight separate occasions, and that on four of them uncrewed aircraft briefly entered national airspace. Several merchant ships were also hit by drones in the Black Sea during that period, including in Romanian territorial waters, it said. The ministry added that it is continuously adapting its procedures and response measures for the defence of national airspace and territorial waters.

Earlier on 17 October, in a separate notice, the ministry said radar had tracked a target over Ukrainian territory heading towards the border north of Plauru, in Tulcea County. Two Spanish F-18 aircraft serving in the enhanced air policing mission were scrambled from the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base, and an RO-Alert message was sent to residents of northern Tulcea County at 01:54. No entry into national airspace was reported on that occasion.

Context

Drone incidents in the Black Sea have affected Romania before. Geopolitiki earlier reported on a grain ship that sank in Romania’s exclusive economic zone, in Black Sea: Ship carrying Ukrainian grain sinks in Romania’s EEZ with two dead; Zelenskyy blames Russian drone strike. More recently, attacks on ships off Bulgaria were covered in Black Sea: Drones hit two merchant ships off Bulgaria, one sank; Radev calls it “absolutely unacceptable”.