Romanian F-16s Shoot Down Two Attack Drones Over the Black Sea

Two Romanian Air Force F-16 fighters shot down two jet-powered attack drones that entered Romanian airspace over the Black Sea on Saturday, the country’s Ministry of National Defence said, after a week of drone attacks on commercial shipping in the region.

Romanian radar systems detected a group of aerial targets about 120 kilometers east of Snake Island, heading southwest, according to the ministry’s account quoted by defence-industry.eu. Two F-16s on alert duty scrambled from the 86th Air Base at Borcea at 5:43 p.m. local time. The first drone entered Romanian airspace at 5:59 p.m. and was shot down at 6:01 p.m. southeast of Sulina; the second entered at 6:01 p.m. and was destroyed at 6:05 p.m. east of Sulina. Both shootdowns took place over Romanian territorial waters, and both aircraft were later identified as jet-powered drones of the Geran family.

The interceptions followed four brief drone incursions into Romanian airspace earlier in the week that did not result in engagements, the ministry said. Romanian surveillance systems had repeatedly tracked aerial targets near the border during the preceding week.

A week of strikes on merchant ships

The shootdowns came after days of attacks on merchant vessels in the western Black Sea. On October 13, the cargo ship HS Dignity was sunk by a drone strike off Bulgaria, with 11 crew members reported missing, and the Chelsea-3 was hit by aerial drones with all 15 of its crew rescued. On October 14 and 15, a fire broke out aboard the Yara J near the Romanian coast after a suspected drone attack, and on October 15 the Wine Trader caught fire after a suspected drone strike inside Romanian territorial waters — five crew members were rescued and seven were reported missing, according to the timeline compiled by ItaMilRadar.

Earlier incidents show the attacks form part of a wider pattern rather than an isolated sequence: the Turkish-owned Alfa Watan was sunk in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone on October 6, and an October 5 incident involving the cargo vessel Royad Mammadov in Romania’s exclusive economic zone killed two crew members.

Attribution remains unconfirmed

Who launched the drones has not been publicly confirmed. Bulgarian officials have said the available evidence is insufficient to conclusively identify who is responsible for the maritime attacks, although the Bulgarian prime minister has argued that their apparent strategic beneficiary is Russia, and NATO sources have attributed the drones in the tanker incidents to Russia, according to ItaMilRadar. Defence-industry.eu described the intercepted aircraft as Russian drones.

Reporting based on coverage by ItaMilRadar and defence-industry.eu.