{"id":18245,"date":"2026-07-26T22:30:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T17:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=18245"},"modified":"2026-07-26T22:30:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T17:30:58","slug":"romania-scrambles-f-16-jets-and-downs-a-suspected-russian-drone-the-third-in-3-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=18245","title":{"rendered":"Romania scrambles F-16 jets and downs a suspected Russian drone, the third in 3 days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\" data-body-type=\"bodyblocks\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) \u2014 Romania shot down <a data-ylk=\"slk:a suspected Russian drone;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/projects\/russian-drones-shadow-fleet\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">a suspected Russian drone<\/a> after it crossed into its airspace on Sunday \u2014 the third such incursion in three days in the Eastern European nation that&#8217;s both a European Union and a NATO member, the country&#8217;s president said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Two Romanian F-16 fighter jets scrambled from the Fete\u0219ti airbase, under NATO&#8217;s operational command, and shot down the drone over the Black Sea, the military alliance said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;A new drone was shot down this morning, at 10:13, by an F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force, over the territorial waters of Romania, in the Sulina\u2013Chilia area,&#8221; Romanian President Nicusor Dan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He added that authorities found that one of the earlier intercepted drones appears to be &#8220;a Shahed type, used by the Russian Federation in the war of aggression against Ukraine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This is the fourth recent downing by Romania of a drone violating NATO airspace in coordination with the alliance, said Col. Martin O&#8217;Donnell, a spokesperson for NATO&#8217;s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, known as SHAPE.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Before the last three interceptions, Romanian jets shot down a drone in the sky above Estonia in May, he said. Romanian pilots and planes are based in Lithuania from where they have broad strike capabilities as part of NATO&#8217;s force posture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;As we continue to prove, NATO is constantly on the watch and prepared to defend itself from any threat,&#8221; O&#8217;Donnell said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Romania has acquired the MEROPS counter-drone system, which fires relatively cheap, three-feet long drones to take down incoming Shahed and other variants. That system is part of a broader hardening across the military alliance of NATO&#8217;s long eastern border against drone threats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In May, a Russian drone that was part of an attack on Ukraine <a data-ylk=\"slk:went astray;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-war-romania-drone-aa90986c237b8fa1d9116685c8c32f95\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">went astray<\/a> and struck an apartment building in <a data-ylk=\"slk:eastern Romania;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/romania\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">eastern Romania<\/a>, injuring two people and raising fears <a data-ylk=\"slk:the war;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">the war<\/a> could spill over into the alliance&#8217;s territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It is inadmissible and intolerable that the Russian Federation continues to violate Romanian airspace, which is also NATO and European Union airspace,&#8221; President Dan said. &#8220;Such actions are unacceptable and we treat them with all seriousness, together with our allies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">NATO and EU ally Belgium said Sunday&#8217;s incursion was a &#8220;stark reminder of the ongoing threat Russia&#8217;s war poses to European security.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Belgium stands firmly with Romania after several drones were shot down over its territory in the past days. Romania&#8217;s investigation has already confirmed that one of them was a Russian Shahed drone,&#8221; the country&#8217;s Foreign Minister Maxime Pr\u00e9vot said, adding that 300 Belgium troops are based in Romania as part of NATO&#8217;s eastern flank force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A series of drone incursions <a data-ylk=\"slk:by Russia and Ukraine;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-baltic-ukrainian-drones-latvia-lithuania-bee2f1620f4ba958e3af54f4b6bf7f47\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">by Russia and Ukraine<\/a> have hit Romania and other NATO members since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">McNeil reported from Brussels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) \u2014 Romania shot down a suspected Russian drone after it crossed into its airspace on Sunday \u2014 the third such incursion in three days in the Eastern European nation that&#8217;s both a European Union and a NATO member, the country&#8217;s president said. Two Romanian F-16 fighter jets scrambled from the Fete\u0219ti airbase,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/3115c530b44e2ea92867293cce5346303f8744cb5473d253b6c99eb7bb221019\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefill_w1200;quality_80;format_webp\/https:%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fap.org%2Fe27476b407957c0d14e969700abc73d2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}