Romania downs second drone in its territory in under 24 hours

Romanian authorities downed a drone that entered the country's airspace in the Danube Delta region, close to the border with Ukraine. This incident marks the second time in less than 24 hours that Romanian forces have intercepted and destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle.

The drone was detected entering national airspace at 8:22 a.m. local time on Saturday. Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the target, with the same pilot who downed a drone the previous day successfully neutralizing this second aircraft. The drone fell in an unpopulated area near the border without causing any incidents, according to a Ministry of Defense statement.

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This morning, at 8:30 (5:30 GMT), a drone was shot down in Romanian airspace, 10 km west of the city of Sfântu Gheorghe. The drone was shot down by a Romanian pilot from an F-16 aircraft.

Sfântu Gheorghe, a town in the Danube Delta on the Black Sea coast, is located approximately 35 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The previous day, a Romanian fighter jet downed a drone over an uninhabited area near Padina, more than 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. This was the first such incident since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

General Vlad Gheorghita, Chief of the Romanian Army, suggested that the previous drone "was not for research or surveillance," raising the possibility it "could have carried an explosive payload," though this remains unconfirmed. Initial visual identification suggested the downed aircraft might be a "Geran 2" type, a kamikaze drone manufactured in Russia and based on the Iranian Shahed design. Prosecutors in Ploiesti have corroborated this, describing the downed drone as a Shahed.

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it was not for research or surveillance, so it cannot be ruled out that it was carrying an explosive charge.