Four Eurofighters protect the NATO southeastern flank here from Russian provocations – defensively, but with a clear presence in the air.
Constanta (Romania) – The war in Ukraine is a five-minute flight away for the German Eurofighter pilots in Romania. The German Air Force has been monitoring NATO airspace from Mihail Kogălniceanu airfield near Constanta on the Black Sea since November 27th. About 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. On Wednesday (December 6th) the German soldiers were “sharply alerted” for the first time, the Air Force said.
There was increased Russian activity after Ukrainian forces were said to have shot down an SU-24M bomber – after which a Russian plane approached NATO airspace, presumably looking for debris from the destroyed jet. There was no direct confrontation or penetration of Romanian airspace.
German Air Force in Romania – two Eurofighters take off on routine flights twice a day
During Enhanced Air Policing South (eAPS), the Air Force monitors the airspace over NATO territory with four Eurofighter fighter jets from Tactical Air Force Squadron 31 “Boelcke” from Nörvenich in Romania. What happens there should be seen. One day before the alarm was announced, the Air Force flew a group of journalists to the Black Sea. Two Eurofighters take off there twice a day for routine flights; they only have 15 minutes to be “airborne”, according to Lieutenant Colonel Markus Kuchenbaur, who leads the contingent.
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On the ground, soldiers monitor the space with the defense system against small unmanned aerial vehicles (ASUL). The entire contingent includes around 150 soldiers, including 80 from the Tactical Air Force Squadron and forty from the Air Force Friesland Object Protection Regiment. The German soldiers leave again on December 22nd.
Quick transfer to Romania – frequent airspace violations on the Ukrainian border
It is important to them to emphasize how quickly and spontaneously they moved the four Eurofighters, tents, forty containers full of material and the soldiers to Romania. It was only in September that the instruction came to Air Force Squadron 31 to take over Enhanced Air Policing South in the NATO country because Turkey, which was actually planned, did not manage to do it in time. A challenge for logistics. The Air Force had previously flown air policing missions in Romania in 2021 and 2022. She has been doing this in the Baltics for almost 20 years.
In Romania, there have been frequent airspace violations by Iranian-made Russian Shahed 136 drones on the Ukrainian border, says Kuchenbaur. Sometimes there are debris from missiles that were shot down in Ukraine and landed in Romania, sometimes drones that flew uncontrollably beyond their destination, but whose crossing was classified as “unintentional”.
Russian Air Force very active over the Black Sea
International airspace begins over the Black Sea, outside the twelve-mile zone off the coast. “The Russians are using it very actively,” says Kuchenbaur, and are careful not to penetrate the zone. From the flight tracks you can see that they are aware that “there is NATO, we don't want to penetrate this twelve-mile zone,” says Kuchenbaur. He instructed the German pilots to “act defensively, but show presence in the air.” A sign that radars also registered 200 to 300 miles away in Russian-occupied Crimea.
And the mission is not completely altruistic. The use of the Asul system from the German manufacturer ESG, which disrupts drones to protect Germans, is advertising. The Romanian army is thinking about purchasing the system, says Kuchenbaur. Romania is also looking for a way to connect the Gepard infantry fighting vehicle to the system so that the Gepard can receive target assignments from Asul and shoot down drones.
Romania is the only NATO country that still uses the Gepard tanks, which were decommissioned in Germany over ten years ago and have a surprisingly high hit rate in Ukraine.
Political rapprochement with Bucharest
The operation also sends a political signal to Bucharest. “In the last two years, since the beginning of the war, we have seen a very strong intensification of political and security policy exchanges,” said the German ambassador to Romania, Peer Gebauer, to Table.Media.
In April 2023, Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Romania, 13 years after the last visit by a German head of government to Bucharest. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has been there twice in the past two years. In July, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu visited Berlin.
2024 exercise by the German-French brigade in Romania
Germany is turning to smaller countries in Eastern Europe in NATO, while relations with traditional partners such as France are deteriorating. Preparations for the deployment of the brigade are underway in Lithuania, and Romania is also an important partner in the EU. When it comes to difficult questions, Romania is “part of the solution” and does not “use vetoes, as other states do, to enforce national interests,” says Gebauer.
During his visit to Berlin, Ciolacu wanted a permanent German troop presence in his country. He should get a consolation prize. In January 2023, the crisis-ridden German-French Council of Ministers decided that the German-French brigade should train in Romania in 2024. This could lead to an improvement in the poor German-French relationship and deepen the relationship with Romania.
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