NATO may redeploy anti-drone defense systems as attacks sink more ships in Black Sea

Suspected Russian drones sank or damaged 5 ships near Bulgaria and Romania.

Suspicious Russian drones sink or damage 5 ships near Bulgaria and Romania.

Sailors rescued from a ship attacked by a drone arrive at the port of Varna in Bulgaria on October 13, 2026.

Suspected Russian drone strikes sank a cargo ship and evacuated another 22 miles off the coast of Bulgaria in the Black Sea on October 13. The latest attacks mean five ships have been attacked in the exclusive economic zones of NATO member states - fueling calls for NATO to redeploy anti-drone systems to provide greater protection.

All 15 members of the Ukrainian-owned Chelsea 3 were safely evacuated by a Bulgarian rescue operation after three drones hit the ship.

These incidents are the latest in a growing series of unprecedented attacks on Black Sea vessels in the exclusive economic zones of NATO countries. A week earlier, air and naval drones sank the Togolese-flagged cargo ship Alpha Watan and set fire to the Palau-flagged cargo ship Able about 80 miles (128 km) off the coast of Bulgaria on October 6.

Able's 18 crew members were rescued - two required hospitalization - but the 10-person crew of Alpha Watan was presumed dead after rescuers failed to find any survivors.

Such incidents first began when the Turkish cargo ship Royad Mamedov was attacked by drones and eventually sank near the Romanian Black Sea coast on October 5. All 11 crew members were rescued.

In response to these attacks, Bulgaria has increased its cooperation with the affected NATO countries and the alliance as a whole. On Oct. 14, Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov told the national parliament that the country would join NATO's Unmanned Edge initiative, which involves member states pledging a total of $40 billion to develop anti-drone capabilities over the next five years, independent news outlet The Sofia Globe reported.

NATO officials are also now considering moving existing anti-drone countermeasures to the region after receiving requests from Bulgaria, Romania and Türkiye, diplomats told Politico. The three countries are also cooperating on an initiative to protect freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, which Bulgarian Prime Minister Radev plans to present to the EU this week.

NATO navies have avoided military exercises in the Black Sea since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in accordance with the 1936 Monterey Convention, which allows Turkey to restrict the passage of ships through the straits leading to the Black Sea. These Turkish actions have also prevented the Russian Black Sea Fleet from being reinforced or rotated during the war.

Despite its lack of conventional naval forces, Ukraine has been able to largely neutralize Russian warships and disrupt Russian-related shipping and ports using aerial and naval drones. But Russia has countered with its drone attacks on Ukrainian ports and ships and has sometimes targeted the ships of other countries in the region.

According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as of the fall of 2023, Ukrainian ships typically stick to shipping lanes that pass through the territorial waters of Romania, Bulgaria, or Turkey in the Black Sea. Such Black Sea shipping is especially important for Ukraine's agricultural grain exports, which comprise more than 90 percent.

According to Politico, the latest wave of possible Russian attacks in the Black Sea is now disrupting the shipping of ships carrying Ukraine's latest crop to the rest of Europe, and some shipments have been diverted overland or through the Danube River.

These unprecedented attacks in waters near NATO countries coincide with a growing wave of incidents attributed to Russia's hybrid warfare or gray zone tactics. Such incidents include an explosive drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport in Germany and a Russian drone boat loaded with explosives floating near a Romanian offshore gas platform in the Black Sea.

But since the start of the war, Türkiye, Romania and Bulgaria have continued to upgrade their navies while forging closer cooperation on maritime security, according to Carnegie. Increasing risks to shipping in the Black Sea are likely to accelerate this process of cooperation - and for the NATO alliance as a whole.

Jeremy Hsu is a reporter covering a wide range of topics in deep technology and artificial intelligence. He has previously written for New Scientist, Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, Wired, Undark Magazine, and MIT Tech Review, among many other publications, on topics such as deepfakes, data centers, drones, battery technology, robotics, and GPS jamming. He also holds a master's degree in journalism from New York University, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in the history and sociology of science, with a minor in English.