F-16s Take 20 Minutes to Reach Moldova; Bacău Could Cut Response to 15
Romania's nearest F-16 base is 290 km from Iași, leaving Moldova the only region without a fighter squadron. Recent drone incursions have renewed focus on using Bacău aerodrome.
Illustration: AI-generated image
Two drones crossed into Romanian airspace from Moldova on the evening of 31 October, triggering a two-hour alert across six counties and the scramble of four F-16 fighter jets. The incident has again highlighted a gap in air defence coverage for the Moldova region, which has no fighter squadron of its own.
Data from the Ministry of National Defence (MApN) and local authorities shows that the closest F-16 base to Iași, at Câmpia Turzii, is 290 kilometres away. A second base at Fetești is 310 kilometres away. Under current arrangements, a realistic alert-takeoff-and-flight time to the Moldova area is 20–25 minutes.
If Romania used the Bacău aerodrome, the same mission could be completed in 13–15 minutes, according to figures supplied by Bacău County Council, which owns the infrastructure. MApN, however, says the Bacău airfield does not allow the operation of multirole aircraft. The base there — Baza 95 Aeriană — currently hosts only IAR-99 Șoim trainer jets and IAR-330 helicopters.
The recent drone path is new. Until this summer, most drones entering Romanian airspace came from the Black Sea and Danube area, where surveillance and response are concentrated. Since September, several have entered from the north-east via Moldova. On 8 September, a Geran-type jet drone flew from Chișinău to 18 km north of Roman before leaving after about 25 minutes without being intercepted. On 12 September another crashed in a maize field near Botoșenița Mare, Suceava, and on 24 September one crashed in a forest near Solca.
Retired commander Valentin Mateiu, a political-military analyst, said there is no Ukrainian target along the Transnistria–Călărași–Iași trajectory, suggesting the incursions may be a test. "In the end, airports were closed and people's lives were affected," Mateiu told HotNews.
The F-16s scrambled on 31 October did not shoot down either drone. One drone left national airspace; contact with the second was lost between Vaslui and Bacău counties. Alerts for residents in Iași, Neamț, Vaslui, Botoșani, Bacău and Suceava ended around 19:19, roughly two hours after they began.
