Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday that Defence Ministry specialists are also analysing the possibility of a „cyber provocation” in connection with the drone alert in Constanta, given that the pilots of the International Air Policing aircraft that were lifted from the ground following the alert had no visual contact with the drone in question.
He thus replied, when asked about the measures that could be taken given that „Russian drones have flown over Romania’s airspace for the second time.”
„All measures have been taken so that there is no danger. Let’s see the entire analysis of the Defence Ministry, whether it was a cybernetic provocation, because the visual contact of the pilots with the drone in question did not exist,” said Marcel Ciolacu.
On Thursday evening on a private television broadcaster show, the prime minister gave assurances that „there was no danger, but these are the procedures and in emergency situations we had to make that announcement in the area of Constanta.”
In the same context, when asked whether there is a law to down drones, he explained that if a drone is going towards a civil or military target it will be downed, as the trajectory can be seen.
The National Defence Ministry (MApN) informed that on Thursday, around 17,00hrs, the Romanian Army’s radar surveillance system indicated a small aerial sighting in an area off the Black Sea, about 150 km east of Mihail Kogalniceanu, Constanta County.
„In accordance with the procedures, the structures of the NATO-led Enhanced Air Policing Combat Service were activated, and then the Air Police under national command. Following the advancement of the air target on a route towards the Romanian state border, two F-18 aircraft of the Spanish Air Force took off successively from 57th Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, and two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force from 86th Borcea Air Base, to monitor the situation. The radar signal indicated the crossing of Romania’s land border at around 19,00hrs, in the area of Eforie Nord, and then progressed in the direction of Topraisar,” MApN said in a release sent.
AGERPRES
