Romanian Air Force to launch nationwide Burebista 26 exercise on 14 September

Exercise timeline and national scope

The Romanian Air Force will begin the military exercise Burebista 26 on 14 September 2026 across the entire national territory of Romania. The maneuvers will run for twelve days through 25 September 2026 as one of the scheduled drills on the Romanian Army training calendar for 2026. Military authorities structured the exercise around a complex, fictional operational scenario to evaluate rapid response procedures and combat integration. All command, control, and execution structures within the Romanian Air Force will participate in the scheduled activities across the country. The Romanian Air Force Staff published the notification on its official communication channels on Friday evening, 11 September 2026, to inform the public about the forthcoming movements.

Air operations and joint-force support

The central mission focuses on joint-service collaboration across multiple branches of the Romanian Armed Forces. The Romanian Land Forces, Naval Forces, and Special Operations Forces will provide direct operational support to the Air Force throughout the fictional campaign. Ground units, maritime personnel, and aviation crews will practice joint tactical maneuvers to refine inter-service command chains and operational readiness in simulated combat situations. The Romanian Air Force detailed the core purpose of the deployment in an official statement released ahead of the drills.

The purpose of this exercise is to train the structures of the Romanian Air Force in an integrated and joint context, for planning and conducting combat actions within an air operation.

Ground convoys and low-altitude flight paths

During the active period from 14 September to 25 September 2026, military personnel and technical equipment will move along overland transit routes throughout Romania. Military aircraft will also execute low-altitude training flights across the entirety of Romanian airspace. These scheduled maneuvers follow a separate series of joint allied aerial drills conducted between 7 September and 14 September 2026. In those operations, Romanian Air Force aircraft flew alongside assets from the Spanish Air and Space Force and the United States military deployed at the 57th Air Base Căpitan Aviator Constantin Cantacuzino in Mihail Kogălniceanu, performing low-altitude and supersonic flights nationwide.

Special Operations readiness and operational history

The Special Operations Forces supporting Burebista 26 maintain specialized capabilities developed through domestic exercises and foreign combat deployments. In June 2026, elite operators conducted water-landing parachute training from an IAR 330 Puma helicopter over a reservoir in Brașov County. Training at the Ghimbav aerodrome involved parachute jumps from altitudes exceeding 2,000 meters directly into water, requiring advanced preparation among participating troops. The youngest servicemember in that specialized detachment had already recorded nearly 200 parachute jumps prior to the training. The broader Romanian Special Forces component numbers several thousand personnel, including several hundred operational combatants with international experience. The service branch completed its most difficult real-world mission in Afghanistan, where the Special Operations Forces Command based in Târgu Mureș lost six soldiers during international operations.