Romanian government adopts bill to shoot down drones that violate airspace
On Thursday, 12 December, the Romanian government adopted a bill that provides for the possibility of shooting down drones that violate national airspace.
According to Censor.NET, citing Digi24, this was announced by Romanian government spokesman Mihai Constantin.
It is noted that the bill expands and regulates measures to control the use of national airspace, drones and other aircraft.
According to the draft law, several situations have been identified in which an aircraft "unauthorisedly uses" Romanian airspace: performing an unauthorised flight, deviating from a previously agreed route, interrupting the operation of identification devices, flying in prohibited areas, posing a threat to official authorities, etc.
Thus, one or more measures may be taken against such aircraft, ranging from interception to "immobilisation or destruction".
The order to shoot down an aircraft that violates Romanian airspace is given by "persons vested with the decision-making authority established by a decision of the Supreme National Defence Council".
As reported earlier, the Romanian Ministry of Defence has drafted a bill that proposes to shoot down UAVs that violate the country's airspace.
Russian drones on the territory of Romania
It is worth reminding that this is not the first time that Russian attack UAVs launched by the occupiers to attack Ukraine have violated Romanian airspace.
In particular, during Russia's attack on the southern regions of Ukraine on the night of 8 September, a violation of Romanian airspace was recorded. It was noted that a group of attack UAVs violated Romanian airspace. Later, the Romanian Ministry of National Defence confirmed the arrival of a Russian UAV in the country and stated that two F-16 fighters were taking to the skies.
The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose territory was entered by a Russian "Shahed" during the attack on southern Ukraine on 8 September, condemned the violation of its own airspace.
In response to the incidents with Russian drones, NATO began additional surveillance of Romanian airspace on 29 September, deploying another Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.
