The Minister of Defense, Radu Miruţă, revealed that he receives air alerts almost every night. Why some drones are not detected by Romanian radars

Radu Miruţă says that, since he became Minister of Defense, he receives air alerts almost every night on his work phone, although the target is not Romania.

Radu Miruţă, about the air alerts regarding Russian drones. PHOTO: Facebook/Radu Miruta

Invited in a show on Digi24, the Minister of National Defense, Radu Miruţă, confessed, on Sunday, that he frequently receives air alerts on his operative phone from the Ministry of Defense. He wanted to emphasize, however, that the target of these drones is not Romania, but the Ukrainian ports on the Danube.

“You should know that on this phone, which is an operative phone from the Ministry of Defense, air alerts come almost every night. Many do not have the direct purpose of entering Romanian territory. The main attack, the target, are the ports on the other side of the Danube. The distance is very small. That is, the crossing by a drone would probably be done in seconds. So that's it. We cannot sit idly by, seeing if the Danube passes or not. There are some military analyzes depending on the trajectory on which it moves, depending on the speed on which it moves and it is estimated whether the fighter jets need to be raised”, said the Minister of Defense.

At the same time, he explained that the decision whether or not to raise fighter jets from the ground is based on real-time military analysis. “We cannot sit idly by” he pointed out.

Why some drones don't show up on our radars

Regarding the detection of drones, the minister specified that there are situations in which they don't appear on radars.

“Pilots have a law that allows them extremely clearly to shoot them (drones – no) (…) I also asked for the map with the radars, with the sectors that cover certain areas with the landforms. But, to discuss very openly, there are situations in which they may not be seen on the radar. For two main reasons. Certain drones have an absorbent composition and the beam emitted by the radar is absorbed and does not return to mention the position from where it returned. There are certain situations in which, depending on the landforms, when it is like a caldron like that, when the waves are reflected in landforms, there are portions where the fixed radars, which exist on the territory of Romania, at very low altitudes, cannot catch such a thing and if the surface of the drone is not absorbent”, Miruta explained to Digi24.

Asked if Romania has so far shot down Russian drones, the minister replied that this has not happened.

“From the information I have, Romania has not shot down the Russian drones until this moment (…) I am convinced that, since I have been a minister, it has not happened, because a report comes after each attack. I asked and was told by the military responsibility of those who transmit this information that Romania has not been in this situation before, but there is a provision given to the pilots”. declared Radu Miruţă.