Overview
- Romanian forces used an F-16 to shoot down a foreign drone over uninhabited land near Padina in Buzău on Friday after the object entered national airspace.
- The interception involved two Italian fighter jets and an additional Romanian F-16 that were scrambled to the area and helped coordinate the response.
- Authorities have not attributed the drone to any actor and have tasked forensic teams with examining debris to establish whether the platform was armed and where it launched from.
- Bucharest had given the military legal authority to shoot down intrusive drones in 2025, a change officials cited as enabling the engagement without legal hesitation.
- Repeated drone incursions and a May strike in Galați that wounded two civilians underscore the civilian risk and raise the stakes for NATO-area air-defence coordination along Romania’s long border with Ukraine.