A Romanian Air Force F-16 shot down an unidentified drone over Buzău County on Friday, the first confirmed shoot-down of a drone over Romanian territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.
The Defence Ministry said radar detected the aircraft at 9:39 a.m., 20 kilometres east of Sulina, on a course along the Sulina – Brăila – Fetești – Buzău corridor. Two Italian Eurofighters took off at 9:48 to monitor it, and two Romanian F-16s followed at 10:56. At 11:02 a.m., one F-16 destroyed the drone with a missile over an uninhabited area near Padina. Romanian President Nicușor Dan said the location let the pilot fire without risk to people on the ground. Investigators have not identified the drone’s origin.
It was the second drone downed by a Romanian F-16 this year, but the first over Romania itself. On May 19, a Romanian jet on NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission shot down a drone over Estonia that officials assessed was probably Ukrainian and intended for a target in Russia. Ukraine later apologized.
The incident extends a cautious shift along NATO’s eastern flank. Poland and allied aircraft downed Russian drones in Polish airspace in September 2025, the first such NATO engagement of the war. Interception is not automatic: in May, Romanian aircraft tracked a Russian drone that later struck an apartment building in Galați, injuring two people, but did not fire over the urban area.
As incursions continue, NATO states are acting where tracking, authorization, trajectory and ground conditions permit – a threshold met on Friday and absent at Galați.
