Romania records 25 drone incursions in 2026, nearly triple 2025 total 

Romania recorded 25 unauthorized drone incursions into national airspace or territorial waters during 2026, against nine in the whole of 2025, according to the incident dashboard maintained by the Ministry of National Defense (MApN) and current as of August 25, 2026. 

The same dashboard counts 47 situations in 2026 in which aircraft on air policing duty were launched to monitor the air situation, compared with 21 across 2025. MApN defines each figure as a count of situations rather than aircraft or sorties. 

Two fighter scrambles in a single day 

At around 06:00 local time on August 24, 2026, MApN radar detected intermittent signals over Moldovan airspace near Cahul, one of which later appeared over Targu Bujor in Galati County, the ministry said. Two Romanian Air Force F-16s and an IAR-330 SOCAT helicopter were launched, and a RO-Alert [the Romanian cell broadcast message system – ed. note] was sent to the population. 

The air alert ended at 08:52, and the F-16s landed at the 86th Air Base at Borcea. The IAR-330 searched the Targu Bujor to Matca area and had found no impact traces or fragments at that point. 

Drone components were later identified in the yard of a property at Ciuslea, in neighboring Vrancea County. Checks established that the drone carried no explosive charge, and the components most probably came from the aircraft that crossed into national airspace that morning from the direction of Moldova, the ministry said. 

Spanish F-18s launched over Snake Island approach 

At 22:37 on August 24, 2026, radar detected two air targets 25 kilometers (16 miles) northwest of Snake Island moving toward the Romanian border. Two Spanish Air and Space Force F/A-18 Hornet fighters from the 57th Air Base at Mihail Kogalniceanu were launched to monitor the situation. 

The National Military Command Center notified the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, and a RO-Alert message reached northern Tulcea County at 22:55. The contacts left radar at 22:58, with explosions reported on the Ukrainian side. No penetration of national airspace was detected. 

The Spanish detachment took over the Romanian rotation on July 31, 2026, replacing Italian and British detachments. Its aircraft shot down a drone over Galati County on August 16, 2026, after a similar approach through Moldova.  

Romanian F-16 pilots downed three drones between July 24 and July 26, 2026, after which Bucharest expelled a Russian embassy staff member. On August 20, 2026, an F-16 opened fire with its cannon on a maritime drone inside Romania’s exclusive economic zone.The post Romania records 25 drone incursions in 2026, nearly triple 2025 total  appeared first on AeroTime.

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