NATO member Romania: F-16s shoot down two drones over the Black Sea
The jet-powered Geran-type drones entered Romanian airspace on Saturday evening. The Defense Ministry in Bucharest did not name an operator.
Archive image · Photo: Footage courtesy of NATO's Allied Air Command / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
Two Romanian F-16 fighter jets on Saturday shot down two drones that had entered the NATO member's airspace. According to the Defense Ministry in Bucharest, radar first detected a group of aerial objects about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Snake Island. The jets took off from Borcea air base at 5:43 p.m. local time; between 6:01 and 6:05 p.m., the drones were destroyed over Romanian territorial waters after maneuvering in the airspace for about five minutes.
The ministry attributed the aircraft to the jet-powered Geran family, which Russia frequently uses against Ukraine, but did not name any country as the operator. There have been repeated incidents in recent weeks: on Oct. 15, two tankers in Romanian waters caught fire after drone incursions, and seven sailors were reported missing.
President Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Ukrainian fighter jets had shot down about 55% to 60% of Russian jet-powered drones. Deliveries of 20-millimeter ammunition for the F-16s are to be increased, he said. The biggest gap remains defense against ballistic missiles; he said he had discussed possible European packages of Patriot missiles at the EU summit.