Romania scrambles F-16s to destroy drone near gas project

Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets on Thursday to destroy a marine drone detected near the Neptun Deep gas project in the Black Sea, Defense Minister Radu-Dinel Miruţă said.

The drone was spotted a few hundred meters from the project's gas extraction operations, about 80 miles east of Constanța, according to Miruţă. The Romanian Coast Guard reported the sighting, and the defense ministry requested NATO authorization to respond.

Miruţă said the decision to destroy the drone was made "to protect the lives of the hundreds of personnel working on the platform and to safeguard critical infrastructure." Two F-16s were scrambled with orders to engage, and the drone was "safely destroyed," he said.

President Nicușor Dan said in a post on X that the drone had come from Russia. "I strongly condemn the intensification of these types of irresponsible incidents on the part of the Russian Federation," he said. "We remain vigilant alongside NATO allies to defend ourselves and repel such challenges."