Radu Miruță, Romania’s acting Minister of Defense, stated in a television interview that he had proposed asking the Ukrainian side to program the maritime drones in such a way so that, in the event of a loss of control, the drone’s coordinates would prevent it from entering Romanian territorial waters, and so that it would self-destruct at a distance of 12 nautical miles.
It was reported by Defense Romania.
Miruță noted that this is a matter of programming and software. He also explained that the decision to raise this issue with the Ukrainian side stems from the fact that a few days ago, a Ukrainian Seababy-type maritime drone, control of which had been lost, drifted into Dock No. 78 at the Port of Constanta, where it self-destructed a few hours later.
"This is something that can be done, and I intend to propose it, namely: these drones have a great many electronic components, and by analyzing the performance data from these components, their manufacturers or those operating the drones can determine their location. If it happens that you lose them in the Black Sea as they approach Romanian territorial waters, within 12 nautical miles, the operator controlling the drone must program it to self-destruct automatically so that no one has to search for them," says Romania’s acting Minister of Defense.
He also added: "I want to ask our neighbors in Ukraine, who are in the midst of such a brutal war caused by the Russian Federation, to guarantee to us that all drones they launch in the Black Sea are programmed with this technical feature. If, due to various errors, you enter this zone, you will not be able to move further; this is a built-in feature of the device that activates as soon as you launch it into the water."
Romania has sent Ukraine 10 questions regarding the incident involving the drone that self-destructed in the port of Constanța. Miruță also noted that the investigation is ongoing but asked the Ukrainian side for cooperation.
He says he understands the dynamics of a country at war, but for two friendly nations with a relationship based on respect, “as Minister of Defense, consider it legitimate for Ukraine to come and present to us the entire sequence of events: what their objective was, what the plan was, whether they lost control of them or not, and why some drones were farther away than others.”
Other questions concerned when control was lost, whether communication was lost, but whether their location was known or not? When did it become known that the drone was stuck? What was the communication like with the drones? What was the explosive charge like? Did only one drone have an explosive charge?
He also noted that Romania is awaiting answers to these questions, but “we will not accept at face value an answer that we do not consider sufficiently substantiated; if necessary, we will verify the answers using the data we have.”
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the Ukrainian Navy promptly informed the Romanian side about a maritime drone that lost control due to electronic jamming by the aggressor country, russia.
Romania, meanwhile, reported that all four drones, over which the Ukrainian military lost control due to the action of russian electronic systems, self-destructed near the Romanian port of Constanța, without causing any damage or losses to the state.
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