Fighter jets track two uncrewed aircraft in first daytime breach of Romanian airspace since full-scale Ukraine war
Nato jets were scrambled to track two Russian drones that crossed into Romania on Tuesday in the deepest and first daytime incursion into the country’s airspace since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.
German Typhoon and Romanian F-16 fighter jets took off in pairs to follow the uncrewed aircraft. The first flew back into Ukrainian airspace, but the second was later found downed in Puieşti, about 70 miles from Ukraine.
Ionuț Moşteanu, Romania’s defence minister, said two of the German pilots had been given orders to shoot down the second drone. In the end, he said it appeared to have crashed, possibly because it had run out fuel.
Examination of the wreckage showed the drone was unarmed, the minister added. “It could have been destroyed if all the conditions had been met ... the pilots needed to see it, to engage it, to lock it on radar and to be able to fire a missile at it.”
