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RO-Alert message issued in Tulcea following a possible drone incursion

Ana Maria Eftene

15 November 2026, 13:58

Current Affairs

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A new RO-Alert message was issued on Sunday, November 15, at 15:02, for residents of northern and eastern Tulcea County, after the radar system of the Ministry of National Defence detected an aerial target near the border with Ukraine. The population was advised to remain calm and seek shelter.

According to the Ministry of National Defence, the target was identified approximately 20 kilometers northeast of the town of Vâlcove, Ukraine. Two Romanian Air Force F-16 aircraft, on Air Policing combat duty, took off from the 86th Fetești Air Base to assess the situation.

The National Military Command Center notified the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, and the authorities ordered the alerting of the population in the northern and eastern areas of Tulcea County. For the time being, the authorities have not confirmed that a drone entered Romanian airspace.

The incident took place after, on Saturday night into Sunday, three commercial vessels were hit by drones near the Danube Delta. Fires broke out aboard the vessels and were subsequently extinguished by the crews. Another RO-Alert message was sent during the attacks, and the F-16 aircraft were scrambled.

Context: Before the new alert, RO-Alert had previously been issued in Tulcea County following radar-detected targets near the border

On October 21, the authorities issued an RO-Alert message for northeastern Tulcea County after the radar system of the Ministry of National Defence detected a group of aerial targets in Ukrainian airspace, in the Vâlcove area. The message was sent at 03:34, through notification from the National Military Command Center to the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, and the population was urged to take shelter in basements or civil protection shelters or, if they had none, to remain indoors, away from windows and exterior walls. The Ministry of National Defence later stated that no incursions into national airspace had been reported, and the alert ended at 04:02, with no calls to 112 reported by the Tulcea Inspectorate for Emergency Situations.

A few days earlier, on the morning of October 14, the Ministry of National Defence radar detected aerial targets near the town of Vâlkove (Ukraine), and an RO-Alert was sent at 6:39. At that time, two F-16 aircraft and an IAR-330 SOCAT helicopter were scrambled for monitoring, and the warning was described as a precautionary measure, pending clarification of the situation.