The Romanian government on Thursday adopted a bill that expands and regulates measures to control the use of national airspace by drones and other aircraft.
This was reported by the Romanian portal Digi24, citing the press secretary of the Romanian government, Mihai Constantin.
Drone downing in the skies of Romania
The government press secretary said after the meeting that the bill on control over the use of national airspace uses a new approach to control objects in the sky, based on a wide range of “risks and threats to national security“, the integrity of national airspace and flight safety, life and health of people and property.
Now watching
— The regulation will expand and regulate measures to control the use of national airspace, unmanned aircraft systems on board and other air vehicles, said Mihai Constantin.
He added that unmanned aerial vehicles will benefit from the same level of attention and rigor“ that is currently provided for manned aircraft from both a civil and military perspective.
According to the draft law published in late October on the MapN website, several situations are defined in which an aircraft (manned or unmanned) “unauthorizedly uses national airspace.
Examples include, in particular, “performing an unauthorized flight”, “disrupting the operation of identification devices”, “performing a flight in prohibited areas”, as well as “if an unmanned aerial vehicle is performing a flight and by its behavior creates a serious and imminent threat” institutions or missions subordinated to the Romanian Ministry of Transport in the area.
Thus, one or more of the following measures may be taken against drones“one or more of the following measures”:
- “non-kinetic”, which involve detecting the drone, taking control or neutralizing it by disabling its command, control or communication functions;
- “kinetic”, such as “immobilizing or destruction” unmanned aerial vehicle.
At the same time, the order to shoot down aircraft violating the airspace is given by “persons with the “right to make a decision established by the decision of the Supreme Council of National Defense.”
Russian drones in the skies over Romania
The text of the bill does not say anything about shooting down Russian drones, which have repeatedly flown into Romanian territory.
However, Romanian politicians discussed a possible reaction to how to respond to Russia's violation of the country's airspace.
In addition, in including, they have repeatedly called for this from Ukraine, when during attacks on Ukrainian cities and villages, Russian UAVs flew into the territory of Moldova, Poland and Romania.
Recall that in the past, the Prime Minister of Romania stated that the country cannot destroy Shahed drones launched by Russia over the territory of Ukraine, since it would have to open fire on the territory of another country, which is “not allowed”.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of Romania confirmed the fact of the fall of fragments of Shahed drones, which Russia used to attack civilian and port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the summer of 2024.
