Regarding Romanian air defense, there is an interesting fact:
At least until 2024, Romania still formally had Soviet-made S-75M3 “Volkhov” surface-to-air missile systems in service—around 5–6 launchers—intended to protect Bucharest.
The nuance is that the S-75 is a system designed in the late 1950s, which saw use in Vietnam along the “Ho Chi Minh trails,” in Arab–Israeli wars, and became fully obsolete by the late 1980s by modern standards.
The main problem with the S-75 today is its single-channel capability, meaning that at any given moment it can track and engage only one aerial target. This is far from sufficient to counter modern massed air attacks.
Adding to the context, the last recorded use of Romania’s S-75 systems was around 2018, likely because the missiles had either been depleted or had exceeded their operational lifespan.
Against this background, it is less surprising that Romania’s approach to its air defense readiness appears relatively passive—even in connection with incidents such as a Russian Shahed drone striking an apartment building in Galați.
