Controlled disposal · Bulgaria
Navy destroys floating drone at sea off Pomorie Reef, Bulgaria
· Burgas bridge / Pomorie Reef — offshore reported site
Officially reported UAV recovery/disposal; operator unknown
On 2 September 2026 a floating drone (UAV) was found about 9 nautical miles opposite the Burgas bridge and Pomorie Reef, in what were reported as Bulgarian coastal or territorial waters. Navy personnel identified it and destroyed it at sea. The operation was announced on 3 September.
No operator or national origin has been announced for this object, and its model was not specified. When it flew or came down, and whether it is linked to other drones recovered along the coast, are unresolved. No payload was reported, and none can be inferred from the way it was destroyed.
The site was one of three offshore responses handled from the Navy's Burgas base in an official announcement covering six Navy tasks. It is separate from an earlier find at Pomorie on 26 August.
Attribution and uncertainty
- Origin / operator / attribution
- No operator or national origin announced for this object.
- Investigation / uncertainty
- Flight/crash date, operator and link to other recovered airframes unresolved.
Sources · 2
Full record
Controlled disposal by authorities after discovery; kept separate from incident explosions. Replay uses the discovery date, with any later disposal retained as a linked stage.
Map positions are approximate anchors for the named place, not verified incident coordinates.
- Reported date
- 2026-09-02
- Record type
- discovery_recovery
- End date / linked stage
- 2026-09-02
- Date basis
- Operation 2 September; announced 3 September, later reprinted.
- Location / jurisdiction
- About 9 nautical miles opposite Burgas bridge / Pomorie Reef; reported Bulgarian coastal/territorial waters
- Event categories
- Floating aerial-drone discovery; naval identification; in-situ destruction
- What was reported
- One of three Burgas-base offshore response sites in the Ministry’s six-task announcement.
- Aircraft / vessel / quantity
- UAV/object at one response site; model unspecified
- Origin / operator / attribution
- No operator or national origin announced for this object.
- Damage / casualties / disruption
- Not reported in cited account.
- Response / outcome
- Navy identified the UAV and destroyed it at sea.
- Investigation / uncertainty
- Flight/crash date, operator and link to other recovered airframes unresolved.
- Route / entry mechanism
- Not established in cited account.
- Explosive payload
- Not reported; no inference from disposal method.
- Counting / links
- No matching baseline event. A separately reported 2 September offshore response, not the 26 August Pomorie find E073. One site, not another row for the six-task headline.
- Research provenance
- New finding; local reporting of official response; attribution limited to cited account.
Record N028. Record fields keep the register’s original wording.