F-16 fighter shot down.Romania shot down a second drone over its territory
July 25, 2026, 12:16 pm
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For the second time in two days, a Romanian fighter pilot managed to shoot down an unmanned aerial vehicle over Romanian territory. (Photo: Picture Alliance/dpa/epa)SplitFollow along:
Unmanned Russian or Ukrainian drones repeatedly cross the border and enter Romanian territory. The Romanian Air Force is now taking more drastic measures: they are once again shooting a drone out of the sky.
The Romanian army shot down a drone in the airspace over the country for the second day in a row. The plane was intercepted in the morning almost ten kilometers west of Sfantu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta near the border with Ukraine, Defense Minister Radu Miruta said on the social network Facebook. The drone was recently detected by radar. A few minutes later she was shot down by a Romanian F-16 fighter.
A day earlier, the army of NATO member Romania shot down a drone in the country’s airspace. The shoot down took place near the village of Padina, a good 100 kilometers from the capital Bucharest. This was the first plane shot down since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Not the first drone in Romanian airspace
In Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the armies of both countries are using drones. During the invasion, which has been going on for almost four and a half years, drones have repeatedly entered Romanian airspace. Some have crashed, but none have been shot down as of Friday.
At the end of May, a drone loaded with explosives crashed into a residential building near Galati on the border with Ukraine. According to Bucharest, it was a Russian drone. In 2025, parliament has already passed a law that will allow the Romanian military to shoot down unmanned drones.