Two Drones Enter Romanian Airspace: Four F-16s Scrambled, Alerts in Six Counties

Two drones entered Romanian airspace without authorisation over the north-east of the country on the evening of Saturday, 31 October 2026, Romania’s Ministry of National Defence (MApN) said, prompting the launch of four F-16 fighters and a helicopter and air-raid alerts in six counties. One of the drones later left Romanian airspace; the ministry said the second was last observed in the area between Vaslui and Bacău counties (MApN press release no. 352).

What the Romanian defence ministry said

According to the ministry’s final statement, the Romanian Air Force launched four F-16s that were on Air Policing combat duty, from the 71st Air Base at Câmpia Turzii and the 86th Air Base at Borcea, as well as an IAR-330 SOCAT helicopter. The National Military Command Centre asked the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations to warn residents of Iași, Neamț, Vaslui, Botoșani, Bacău and Suceava counties. “No crashes of any aerial vehicle have been reported,” the ministry said. The alerts were lifted at 19:19 local time (UTC+2), and the ministry said it was keeping allied structures informed in real time.

In earlier updates reported by Romanian media, the ministry said its radar had first picked up an aerial target about 10 km from the border with the Republic of Moldova, and that a second target had then entered from the direction of Moldova. The first RO-Alert message went out at 17:04 for northern Iași County; Suceava was added at 18:44 (News.ro, Antena 3 CNN). The ministry has not said what type of drones they were, who launched them, or whether the jets fired.

Airports and political reaction

Iași International Airport said its airspace was temporarily closed and that a flight from Eindhoven due at 18:25 was diverted to Suceava, according to Antena 3 CNN, which also quoted the director of Suceava airport as saying a Rome flight had been diverted to Cluj. Defence Minister Ștefan Radu Oprea said, as quoted by the same broadcaster, that air policing forces had been activated, that monitoring and intervention actions were under way and that protecting the population and national airspace was the priority (Antena 3 CNN).

Moldova reported drones from Ukraine at the same time

Moldova’s National Army said one drone entered Moldovan airspace at 16:24 from the direction of the Odesa region of Ukraine and a second at 17:50 from the Vinnytsia region, the latter leaving near Viișoara in Edineț district at 18:12. It linked the incursions to “massive attacks by the Russian Federation on Ukraine” (Moldovan Ministry of Defence). Neither government has said whether the drones that reached Romania were the same aircraft.

Previous incidents

On 17 October Romanian F-16s shot down two jet-powered Geran-family drones over the country’s Black Sea territorial waters near Sulina, the first time the MApN had reported such shoot-downs by fighters (our report). Romania, a NATO member, borders both Ukraine and Moldova and has repeatedly found drone debris on its territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Sources: Romanian Ministry of National Defence press release no. 352, 31 October 2026; earlier MApN statements as reported by News.ro and Antena 3 CNN; Moldovan National Army statement, 31 October 2026.