Romania deploys new anti-drone systems for its Black Sea and Danube ports
Romania is currently testing new anti-drone systems in Constanța, on the Black Sea, that can detect and neutralise both aerial and maritime drones, with the equipment scheduled to become fully operational by the end of the year.
The systems will protect the military port of Constanța and the wider commercial Port of Constanța, along with military facilities in Mangalia, Tulcea and Brăila, forming a layered defence for strategic infrastructure on NATO’s eastern flank.
The technology monitors airspace, the water surface and the underwater environment simultaneously. Once installed, it will identify, classify and, when necessary, neutralise unauthorised drones through an integrated response that addresses threats from the air and from the sea. The procurement process stretched over several months, and installation at the four military ports along Romania’s Black Sea and Danube waterways is expected in the coming period. Officials describe the capability as an essential addition to the protection of southeastern Romania at a time when the distinction between distant conflict and direct risk to NATO territory has narrowed sharply.
The systems arrive against a backdrop of repeated drone incidents that have already tested Romania’s readiness. Earlier this year an anti-drone system deployed by the National Company Maritime Ports Administration Constanța detected an unidentified aircraft inside the passenger terminal perimeter. Checks established that the drone belonged to foreign crew members of a cruise ship and was non-military. The ship’s captain briefed passengers and crew on the strict prohibition against unauthorised drone flights, and the Romanian Naval Forces and Border Police were notified. The episode allowed authorities to evaluate the new-generation system in real conditions.
Representatives of the ports administration explained that the chosen solution relies on radio-frequency cyber-takeover rather than broad-spectrum jamming. This non-kinetic approach permits controlled seizure of an unauthorised drone and its redirection to a predetermined safe area without disrupting legitimate communications essential to port operations, including vessel traffic services, automatic identification systems, naval radio links and mobile telephony. The system provides continuous 360-degree detection of commercial and improvised drones through RF fingerprinting, pinpoints both the aircraft and the pilot’s location, and exploits the drone’s own command protocol to assume control. Jamming functions will be activated only after the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications grants the required approvals for intentional radio-frequency emissions. Plans call for expanding the same technology across all ports administered by the company.
A harbinger of closer conflict
The urgency of these measures became clear in June, when a Magura-type naval drone of Ukrainian origin, laden with explosives, drifted roughly three nautical miles into the harbour after its controls were jammed at sea. It exploded near oil and grain terminals, producing a debris cloud over the port. No one was injured, yet the same day three further explosive-laden drones were discovered along the Romanian coast. President Nicușor Dan described the incident as a direct consequence of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and praised the rapid preventive response of security personnel. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a similar assessment. Romania opened a formal investigation into how the munition entered the port. Although physical damage was negligible, the strategic implication was unmistakable: a civilian NATO harbour had been penetrated by a drifting explosive device.
Ukrainian naval drone explodes in Romania port – first such incident on NATO territory
That event underscored a broader erosion of traditional geographic buffers. Drones, missiles, cyber operations, GPS interference and attacks on commercial shipping now confront the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean with overlapping challenges. For residents of border communities the threat is already intimate. In Isaccea, a small town in Tulcea County on the Danube with a crossing into Ukraine, the sound of drone strikes only hundreds of metres across the river has become a source of persistent anxiety.
Official figures illustrate the escalation. Romania’s Ministry of National Defence recorded a threefold rise in drone incursions this year compared with the whole of the previous year – 27 versus nine – and more than double the number of drones or debris recovered on national territory. Near-border attacks on Ukrainian soil have also climbed sharply, prompting dozens of Romanian military aircraft to scramble. In May a Russian drone damaged by the Ukrainian air defence struck an apartment block in Galați, injuring a mother and child. Another drone that entered from Moldova was tracked across several counties before it crashed in a sunflower field. Moscow has denied sending combat drones into Romanian airspace. Romania has nevertheless shot down four drones this year, the first such interceptions since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
Romanian President: Russian drone struck Galați after being hit by Ukrainian air defences
Reinforcing the Eastern flank
The new anti-drone systems therefore represent more than a technical upgrade. They close a tangible vulnerability at ports that serve both commercial transit and allied military mobility. By combining detection across three domains with the ability to neutralise threats without cascading disruption to legitimate traffic, the equipment aims to restore a measure of predictability to infrastructure that has already demonstrated its exposure. As testing continues in Constanța and installation proceeds at the remaining sites, Romanian authorities are betting that layered, non-kinetic defences can keep the next drifting munition or low-altitude intruder from turning a strategic port into an unintended battlefield.
Sources: Romania Journal, Romania Insider, ABC News, BGNES
Romanian F-16 destroys explosive-laden marine drone near Neptun Deep gas platform
Caption: Screenshot from tvrtinfo.ro announcement that Romania is currently testing new anti-drone systems in Constanța, along with military facilities in Mangalia, Tulcea and Brăila