In Romania, drones used by Russia or the remains of them have landed on NATO territory several times. The alliance shows its colors, but escalation should be avoided.
Four Eurofighters and a new defense system against drones for self-protection: The Air Force is involved in securing NATO’s southeastern flank with armed protection flights.
The alliance is also responding to incidents in which unmanned aircraft of Russian origin or remnants of them crashed into the Danube Delta. Germany is supporting Romania with the deployment, said Lieutenant Colonel Markus Kuchenbaur, who leads the Bundeswehr contingent of up to 150 men and women, at the Mihail Kogălniceanu military airfield near Constanta.
There were four incidents of airspace violations on the Romanian side of the border with Ukraine. They were all related to Russian attacks on Ukrainian Danube ports. A very precise analysis has shown that these incidents were probably not intentional on the Russian side, as explained. However, there have been confrontations over the Black Sea. It made headlines when a US drone was apparently brought down by a Russian fighter jet.
War in sight
The space is geographically narrow and, from an aviation perspective, the Ukraine war is taking place practically within sight. It takes five to eight minutes to fly from the military airfield to the Ukrainian border. The Black Sea coast is also practically under your nose. The Romanian twelve-mile zone begins there and extends to international airspace, which is also used by Russian military aircraft.
“We are very close,” says Kuchenbaur. And: “My pilots are instructed to act defensively.” The German pilots do not leave the twelve-mile zone off the Romanian coast with their Eurofighters, it is explained, so they do not fly any further towards the conflict area and thus signal the defense mission.
The “defense system against unmanned aerial vehicles” (Asul), an anti-drone device introduced in 2022, was also relocated to the camp on the military base used by the Bundeswehr. Essential parts are a control container and antenna systems as well as a movable jammer.
Defense in focus
“We are deployed to protect material and personnel,” says command leader Dominik, a lieutenant. Drones can be detected up to 40 kilometers away. A jammer can disrupt the connection to the missile’s remote control. The system was already in use in Mali and Estonia.
“Enhanced Air Policing South (eAPS)” is the official name of the NATO operation, which is part of military deterrence. Within the alliance, states in the East and Southeast are provided with capabilities they do not have or need more of.
The alarm squad of Eurofighters must be in the air according to NATO standards within 15 minutes, which was demonstrated with a training start (“tango scramble”). “Alpha scramble” is the sharp deployment after an alarm. It is explained that the point at which an armed attacker would be fought is decided at NATO level. There is no plan for a drone invading Romania to be shot down – if only because the use of weapons brings with it its own dangers.
This is the third deployment of this type in Romania for the Bundeswehr, after Eurofighters were already deployed there in 2021 and 2022. In addition to the Tactical Air Force Squadron 31 “Boelcke” and the specialists from the anti-aircraft missile force with Asul technology, there are also soldiers from the Air Force’s Object Protection Regiment “Friesland” at the airfield. They secure the location masked and with assault rifles on the ground, even if it is in friendly territory.
Source: Stern
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