The Netherlands sends three MQ-9 Reaper drones to Romania, at Campia Turzii Air Base

Three Dutch MQ-9 Reaper aircraft will arrive in Romania in 2024. The Netherlands will send to Romania three MQ-9 Reaper drones that will operate between six and 12 months at the Campia Turzii air base, the Ministry of Defense announces.

The Ministry of National Defense “welcomes the decision of the Dutch Government to deploy, during 2024, three MQ-9 Reaper unmanned reconnaissance aircraft from the Royal Netherlands Armed Forces. The aircraft will operate, for a period between six and 12 months, from the 71st Air Base at Câmpia Turzii and will be serviced at Câmpia Turzii by about 40 Dutch specialists”.

“This decision, taken for the first time by the Netherlands, aims to strengthen the defense of NATO’s eastern flank, and the aircraft will have the mission of collecting, for preventive purposes, data and information to monitor the situation along the eastern border of the territory to the Alliance”, the Ministry transmits.

US forces have consistently sent troops and MQ-9 Reaper drones to Turzii Air Base in recent years. In fact, there the American forces were always present with combat units.

Year after year, US military F-15 and F-16 fighter jets came to Base 71 for exercises, and in 2019-2021 the US sent MQ-9 Reaper attack drones to Turzii Plain several times.

On July 14, 2022, an American MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed near Turzii Plain while returning from a training mission. The drone had no explosives on board, and there were no casualties as a result of the crash.