Exploding drones are new reality for NATO

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has crashed in Romania, causing a fire in the latest incident showing the risk of the Ukraine war spilling over into NATO states as the alliance stages exercises this week to prepare for the threat posed by Russia.

Romania’s defense ministry said that at 2.23 a.m. local time Thursday, two NATO F-18 aircraft were scrambled after drones were detected north of Tulcea county near the border with Ukraine. One of the drones crashed just over an hour later in an uninhabited area. 

No damage was reported but the incident is the latest in which drones have been entering— and sometimes exploding —in NATO member states during the Ukraine war. Russia’s aggression has largely been blamed for the spate of incursions, which include Ukrainian drones that allies have said were driven off course through electronic jamming by Moscow.

Newsweek has contacted NATO and the Russian defense ministry for comment. 

Romania on Front Line of Drone Threat 

Thursday’s incident took place just over two miles north-east of Grindu in Romania’s Tulcea County. The Danube region’s proximity to Ukraine puts it on the front line of drone incursions as the war in its neighbor continues to rage. 

Later on Thursday, Romania scrambled F-16 aircraft after a small maritime drone was spotted around 80 miles east of Constanța. 

This comes only days after a NATO F-18 fighter jet operating on an air policing mission shot down a drone on Sunday that unlawfully entered Romanian airspace, the fourth unmanned craft brought down over the country this year.  

These incidents follow Bucharest’s assessment on July 28 that at least 19 drones had entered Romania’s airspace this year. Since the war started in February 2022, there have been 50 cases of drones or drone fragments identified on its territory.

On May 29 a drone identified by Romanian authorities as Russian crashed into an apartment building in the city of Galați, injuring a woman and a child. On April 25, more than 200 people were evacuated when drone debris and explosive material also fell in Galați. 

After Romania shot down three drones between July 24 and 26, one of which was confirmed to be a Russian-made Shahed / Geran 2 model, Romania’s Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Bucharest, expelled a Russian diplomat and recalled its ambassador from Moscow. 

Other Parts of NATO Threatened 

Other members of the alliance’s eastern bloc have also faced drone incursions in recent months.  

On May 23, a drone crashed into Lake Drīdzis in Krāslava Municipality in the east of Latvia and detonated on contact with the water.  

On May 7, two suspected stray drones crossed into Latvia from Russia, one of which exploded at an oil storage facility in the Rēzekne region, local media reported. Riga said the drones were likely Ukrainian drones diverted by Russian electronic warfare.

On March 23, a Ukrainian drone crashed near Lake Lavysas in the Varėna district of Lithuania after it likely veered off course during an attack on the Russian oil terminal in Primorsk.  

Two days later, two Ukrainian military drones entered the airspace of Latvia and Estonia from Russia, which, according to Reuters, were thought to be part of a wider Ukrainian attack on Russia. On March 29, Finnish authorities said that two drones fell near Kouvola, in the east of the country. 

Amid heightened air security concerns along NATO’s flank, the U.S. is leading an alliance air exercise this week that has included displays of combat strike, refueling, air surveillance and electronic warfare, according to U.S. officials and flight-tracking data.  

Colonel Martin O’Donnell, spokesman for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, said the drills included U.S. and Norwegian fighter aircraft, Polish ground forces and a NATO E-3A AWACS plane which is a flying command center and radar station.  

The Wall Street Journal had previously reported  U.S. intelligence warnings that Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing no clear off-ramp in Ukraine, could stage a limited incursion into an alliance member in the coming years to test the resolve of its mutual defense Article 5 clause.