The Romanian Ministry of National Defense reported that early this morning, around 2:30 a.m., the Romanian Army's radar surveillance system detected a small-sized air target in the Black Sea about 45 kilometers from the village of Sfantu Gheorghe, Tulcea County, Agerpress reported.
"Due to the fact that the detected target was moving on a route to the state border of Romania, the structures of the Combat Service for Extended Protection of the Airspace under the leadership of NATO, and subsequently of the Air Police under the national command, were activated according to the procedures. , stated in a ministry announcement.
"To monitor the situation, two F-18 aircraft of the Spanish Air Force took off in succession from the 57th Air Force Base "Mihail Koglunicanu" and, respectively, two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force from the 86th Borča Air Force Base", the Ministry of Defense informed.
According to the quoted source, the radar signal showed the crossing of the land border of Romania around 4:00 in the area of the village of Gura Porticei. At this moment, the National Center for Military Command has notified the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations to implement measures to warn the population in the northeastern part of Constanta County.
Air surveillance radars continuously tracked the route of the target, which headed for the town of Kocalac in Constanta County, with a maximum penetration depth of 19 kilometers into the national territory. The fighter jets did not make visual contact with the target at any point along its route, the message noted.
The surveillance system lost radar signal south of the village of Kojalak around 4:30 a.m.
"The termination of the air alert was transmitted at about 5:10 a.m., and the fighter jets returned to their deployment bases. From the available data, there is currently no probability of the existence of a collision zone on the territory of the country", notes the cited source, adding that the forces of the Ministry of National Defense will inspect the zone today.
The Ministry indicates that it has informed allied structures in real time regarding the situation and remains in constant contact with them.
This is the second such case in Romania within two days. On Thursday evening, the country also scrambled two Spanish and two Romanian fighter jets after an unidentified object violated its airspace in the southeastern part of the country near the Black Sea.
Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku said yesterday that the defense ministry was analyzing the possibility of a "cyber challenge as the pilots had no visual contact with the drone".
The EU and NATO member, which shares a 650-kilometer common border with Ukraine, has repeatedly found fragments of Russian drones on its territory in the past year following attacks by Moscow against Ukrainian port infrastructure, Reuters reminds.
Although many of the fragments fell in Romania after the drones were destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses, concerns grew in September when the airspace of both Romania and Latvia was violated by Russian drones, the agency noted.