| Date | 16 Aug 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Interception |
| Location |
Baleni, Galati County, Romania
45.79, 27.82 (approximate) |
Romanian radar detected an aerial object entering national airspace from Moldova at 04:44 on 16 August, some 24 kilometres north of Galati. A Spanish Air and Space Force EF-18 flying a NATO air policing patrol from the 57th Air Base at Mihail Kogalniceanu made radar contact, received clearance to engage and destroyed the drone at 05:01 over uninhabited ground between the villages of Baleni and Cudalbi. No casualties or damage on the ground were reported. The defence ministry did not state the drone's origin; NATO said it appeared to be Russian. It was the fourth drone shot down over Romania in 2026, after three downed by Romanian F-16s in July.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug 2026 | Incursion | Russian drone follows the Chilia branch for ten minutes over Romania |
| 14 Aug 2026 | Interception | Italian Eurofighter downs a drone over eastern Latvia |
| 14 Aug 2026 | Strike | Drone crashes and burns in a Tulcea forest five kilometres from Ukraine |
| 17 Aug 2026 | Strike | Russian Banderol missile crosses into Moldova and explodes near Talmaza |
GlobalMilitary.net's 2026 inventory snapshot shows nine NATO members — Iceland, Luxembourg, the three Baltic states, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia and Slovenia — hold no fixed-wing fighters, attack aircraft or bombers and depend on Allied air policing.
GlobalMilitary.net's incident log counts 45 established violations of European airspace between January 1 and August 16, 2026, against 31 for the whole of 2025 - and almost all of the growth sits in incidents that ended with a shootdown or an explosion on the ground.
An Italian Eurofighter on NATO Baltic Air Policing duty destroyed an unidentified drone over eastern Latvia before dawn on 14 August, the second time the alliance's quick-reaction force has shot one down over the country this year.