Romanian F-16 shoots down a third drone in three days near Sulina

On 26 July 2026 a Romanian Air Force F-16 shot down a drone that had entered Romanian airspace over the Black Sea near the Danube Delta. According to the Ministry of National Defence the target was first observed at about 09:29 roughly 25 kilometres south-east of Sulina, entered Romanian territorial waters at 10:08 and was engaged with a missile and destroyed at 10:13. Two F-16s had been scrambled under NATO air-policing command.

It was the third drone shot down by Romanian fighters in three consecutive days. On 24 July Italian Eurofighter Typhoons and Romanian F-16s tracked a drone that entered from about 20 kilometres east of Sulina and destroyed it over Padina in Buzău County, with RO-Alert warnings issued in Tulcea and Brăila counties. On 25 July a further drone was shot down over an unpopulated area near the border. Radio Romania International reported that the ministry had recorded 18 drones entering Romanian airspace in 2026 up to that point.

President Nicușor Dan praised the pilots and said it was inadmissible and intolerable for Russia to keep violating the airspace of a NATO and EU member state. The foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador.

Romania has publicly blamed Russia, and the drone downed on 24 July was identified by the president as a Shahed-type design of the kind Russia uses against Ukraine. The types involved on 25 and 26 July remained under investigation. Whether the incursions are deliberate probes or spillover from Russian strikes on Ukrainian Danube port infrastructure has not been established, and Romanian statements describe violations rather than attacks. Three shoot-downs in three days nonetheless mark a shift from earlier practice, when incursions were tracked but rarely engaged.