The X-101 rocket over NATO countries: Romania is in no hurry to activate Aegis and Moldova's problem

On Wednesday, December 25, the military leadership of Ukraine informed the Romanian authorities that at about 7:30 in the morning the Russian rocket would fly through the airspace of Moldova and will stay in the sky over Moldova for two minutes. It was reported by Kyiv Post.

At the same time, "according to the monitoring data of Romanian surveillance systems and according to the data provided by NATO countries, there was no confirmation that the object had crossed the Romanian airspace," the message said.

Later, there was a confirmation that during a massive blow of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, on December 25, 2024, one of the X-101 missiles flew 140 kilometers in the airspace of Moldova and Romania, and then simply fell in one of the western regions of Ukraine. In 2016, the United States placed a ground system about Romania, which became part of a "pan -European shield". It is an AEGIS system that protects NATO countries from a short and medium radius missiles.

Romanian remedies have radar and SM-3 interceptors. At that time, NATO and the United States assured Russia that a shield about Romania and a similar in Poland did not interfere with Russian nuclear restraint. These systems make it possible to bring the hostile ballistic missiles to the ground and maritime base while they are still in flight. Turning missiles are released on enemy rockets before they leave the atmosphere, that is, they are stopped long before the threat arises or causes some harm.

The United States was reported that $ 800 million has been invested in Romania's air defense facility, and it has been underway since 2013. In July 2024, it became known that in the Polish village of Redzikovo (near Gdansk) the AEGIS Ashore air defense facility was fully built and ready for NATO protection. It was noted that the Alliance Against Ballistic Missile system allows you to detect rocket attacks and radar data, to give traps and destroy hostile missiles.

At the same time, according to Ukrainian analysts from Defense Express, Bucharest is in no hurry to "escalate" because the country is part of NATO, but Moldova simply does not have its own air defense, which serves as one of the factors in the planning of drone and missile attacks on the Russian military. Ukraine.

"The hostile means of lesions can fly in the airspace of neighboring countries and jump already in the airspace of the western regions of our country," the authors of the publication say. According to The Military Balance 2024, the Moldova armed forces are one of the Anti-aircraft Regiment of the three starting installations of the S-125 S-125-"nucleus" of terrestrial components of the country's air defense.

But the accuracy of this data is questionable, since the press has information that in 2010, all C-125 Moldova sold through offshore structures. The Moldovan soldiers have difficulties not only with what to knock Russian missiles, but even with means of detecting air goals. If we talk about data on Moldova's army air defense, there is only 28 ZU-23-2 installations and 11 C-60 guns, without MAPs. The territory of Moldova is only 33. 84 thousand square meters. kilometers - only 500 square meters.

kilometers more than Odessa region. Let it there, the Moldovan military to cover the sky - and it seems unlikely that the problem will be solved quickly. This is also used by the Kremlin, regularly directing rockets and drones along routes, including through the territory of Moldova, researchers say. Recall that the Armed Forces attacked a chemical complex in the Rostov region.