Informative · Drone warfare

Romania just scrambled fighter jets after drones crossed into its airspace

1 hour ago · 1 November 2026Share

U.S. Air Force F-16 alongside Romanian Air Force F-16s in formation flight over Constanta, Romania. — U.S. Air Force F-16 alongside Romanian Air Force F-16s in formation flight over Constanta, Romania, March 5, 2022. File photo. Staff Sgt. Jacob Wongwai · Public domain

Romania just sent fighter jets into its own skies.

So what happened? Radar picked up two drones crossing into Romanian airspace without permission, a few hours into the evening of 31 October.

Four F-16s went up. One helicopter too. The jets launched from Câmpia Turzii and Borcea air bases. The helicopter was an IAR-330 SOCAT.

And it wasn't just the air force on alert. Six counties got phone warnings telling people a drone was overhead. Iași, Neamț, Vaslui, Botoșani, Bacău and Suceava — all six, lit up on RO-Alert.

So what happened to the drones? One left Romanian airspace. The other was last tracked between Vaslui and Bacău. Neither one has been shot down. Neither one has been found. Nobody knows where the second drone is right now.

The danger alert was lifted at 19:19 local time.

And here's the thing. Romania still hasn't said what kind of drones these were. Or where they came from.

Now, on the exact same day, something similar happened next door in Moldova.

Moldova's Ministry of Defence says a drone crossed in from Ukraine's Odesa region at 16:24 local time, while Russia was in the middle of attacking Ukraine. A second drone followed a few hours later, at 17:50, this time from Ukraine's Vinnytsia region, and left Moldovan airspace near Edineț at 18:12.

Nobody has tied the Romanian drones to the Moldovan ones. They just happened on the same day, during the same Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Vasile Tofan, Moldova's Prime Minister, said that day that Moldova's airspace has been violated more than 100 times since the war began. Five of those were on that one day alone.

The rest of this story is for members.

So is this new for Romania? No. Not even close.

Romania shares a border with Ukraine that runs about 650 kilometres. Drones have been crossing into it since the war started. In May this year, one crashed in Galați and injured two people. In July, Romania shot down a third intruding drone and called in Russia's ambassador over it.

Marius Lazurca, a national security adviser to Romanian President Nicușor Dan, says more than 115 drones have crossed into Romanian airspace since the war began. He also says more than 600 ships have been hit in the Black Sea.

That's the pattern this fits into. A NATO country on Ukraine's border, dealing with drones overhead so often it has its own alert system and a standard response ready to go.

Romania's Defence Minister is Radu-Dinel Miruță. His ministry has confirmed the incident and the scramble, but it hasn't gone further than that — no word from him personally, and no word from President Nicușor Dan either.

So who sent these two? Nobody has said. Not Romania. Not Russia. Not Ukraine.

And that's what actually matters here. Nobody has said which side's drone it was. Nobody has said if it was sent on purpose, or just blown off course by the fighting. And nobody can say yet where the second one ended up.

Romania is a NATO member. Under the alliance's rules, an attack on one member counts as an attack on all of them. A stray drone isn't that. But every time one crosses the line, the same question gets asked again.

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Romania just scrambled fighter jets after drones crossed into its airspace

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