Romania’s Maritime Hydrographic Directorate has published a new radio navigational warning that is now the working avoid-the-area on live firing east of the Constanta approaches. The official English text, printed on the Directorate’s avize-radio page and published 4 November 2026, states: BLACK SEA. ROMANIA. REAL FIRING. Real firing on days of 11 November 2026 and 12 November 2026 from 07.00 UTC to 12.00 UTC in the area bounded by 43-45,00 N 028-51,00 E, 43-55,00 N 028-51,00 E, 43-55,00 N 029-08,00 E and 43-45,00 N 029-08,00 E. Dangerous area to navigation. Ships that do not participate in the exercise should avoid the area. Cancel this message on 121300 UTC November 2026. The Romanian page prints the same four corners as trageri reale, 11.11 and 12.11.2026, local hours 09.00–14.00, raionul este periculos pentru navigație, navelor care nu participă la exercițiu să evite zona, and a cancel of 15.00 local on 12 November 2026. Industry coastal reprints carry the notice as 164/26, PAN PAN, active until 121300 UTC on 12 November. SeaLagom first carried the English body with a 4 November 00:00 received stamp and a 13:23 UTC update.
That is the working primary. Wednesday night’s product is a two-day live-firing box, not a wreck rewrite and not a second piping watch. It does not name a hull. It does not name an IMO number. It does not name a UAV, a VHF working channel, a numeric berth in cables, or a harbour-master closure. It does not convert the box into a mine, a drifting tanker, or a coastal-protection works polygon. Wednesday afternoon’s dedicated ARN 163/2026 piece on this desk remains floating piping at 43-46.4 N, 028-35.8 E through 152159 UTC on 15 December. That piping sits west of tonight’s west wall. Masters who brief Wednesday night as a rewrite of the Mangalia hose, as a Khoryv move, as a Contship Jet firing, or as a revival of cancelled ARN 162/2026 will have merged a 10-by-12-nautical-mile live-fire box onto four other series.
What the warning actually printed
The hydrographic text is short and is the working primary. BLACK SEA. ROMANIA. REAL FIRING. Published 4 November 2026. Real firing on 11 November 2026 and 12 November 2026, 0700 to 1200 UTC each day. Area bounded by 43-45.00 N 028-51.00 E, 43-55.00 N 028-51.00 E, 43-55.00 N 029-08.00 E, 43-45.00 N 029-08.00 E. Dangerous to navigation. Ships that do not participate should avoid the area. Cancel 121300 UTC 12 November 2026. That is the product. Stay with that wording. The Directorate did not print a hull name. It did not print an IMO number. It did not print “UAV,” “drone,” “missile,” or a weapon class beyond real firing. It did not print a VHF working channel, a range-safety net, or a NOTAM number. It did not print a keep-clear in nautical miles or cables around the polygon. The instruction is avoid the area, not a one-nautical-mile halo outside it. It did not close Constanta, Midia, Mangalia or the Sulina Canal. It did not print a night window. The firing clocks are 0700–1200 UTC on two named days.
The geometry is the first briefing fact. The four corners describe a rectangle about 10 nautical miles north–south, from 43-45 N to 43-55 N, and about 12 nautical miles east–west, from 028-51 E to 029-08 E. The centre sits near 43-50 N, 028-59.5 E, east of the Constanta / Mangalia coastal belt, not in the inshore Mangalia hose water and not in the eastern offshore water that Sunday’s cancelled 162/2026 occupied. Plot the corners. A passage plan that only carried Wednesday afternoon’s piping box at 028-34 E to 028-36 E, or that treated the last mile of recommended track 1 as the only Romanian hazard because 163/2026 sits west of 028-37.61 E, has not budgeted a live-fire rectangle whose western wall is 028-51.00 E. Do not treat track 1 as cancelled. Do not treat Constanta as closed. Do not run 11 and 12 November mornings as if the water east of 028-51 E were empty.
The standing recommended-routes notice, still on the same avize-radio page as ARN 119/2024, is the second briefing fact, used as colour, not as a 164/2026 amendment. Ships approaching and leaving Romanian harbours are still advised to use 43-47.59 N, 028-50.86 E and, as the case may be, recommended track 1 to 43-47.5 N, 028-37.61 E, track 2 north into the Constanta TSS, and track 4 toward the Ukrainian approaches. 43-47.59 N sits inside 43-45 N to 43-55 N. 028-50.86 E sits on the order of a tenth of a nautical mile west of the printed west wall at 028-51.00 E. That landfall is on the doorstep of Wednesday night’s box. A master who briefs the 43-47.59 N waypoint as clean on 11 and 12 November between 0700 and 1200 UTC because “the firing is offshore” has not plotted the west wall. Do not move the landfall. Do not invent a Directorate reroute. Do not occupy 43-47.59 N, 028-51 E during the firing windows. Hold east of 029-08 E, or remain west of 028-51 E, until 1200 UTC on each firing day, and do not treat 1200 UTC on 11 November as the end of the product. 12 November still fires.
The clocks are the third briefing fact. English prints 0700–1200 UTC on 11 and 12 November. Romanian prints 09.00–14.00 local on 11.11 and 12.11. Those match: Eastern European Time in November is UTC+2. The cancel is 121300 UTC, Romanian 15.00 local on 12 November. That is one hour after the second day’s 1200 UTC stop, not a 12 November 0700 open-ended watch. A passage plan that treats the box as live all day on 11 and 12 November has over-read two five-hour windows. A passage plan that drops the box at 1200 UTC on 11 November has under-read a second day. A passage plan that keeps avoiding 43-50 N, 029-00 E after 121300 UTC 12 November without a replacement ARN has over-read a self-cancelling firing notice. The Directorate has not printed a night window, a 13–30 November extension, or a reduced polygon. Plot the four corners. Avoid the area 0700–1200 UTC on 11 and 12 November. Kill the watch at 121300 UTC on 12 November unless a later ARN moves the plot.
The missing UAV, VHF and numeric-berth lines are omissions, not a completed exercise order. An October coastal firing product on this coast printed real firing and UAV flight activities together. 164/2026 prints real firing only. Do not restore a UAV line. Do not invent a missile corridor. Do not invent Channel 16 as a range-safety net because dedicated Khoryv files used it. Do not borrow 162/2026’s two nautical miles, 158/2026’s one nautical mile, or 766/26’s five cables onto a polygon that already says avoid the area. Give the rectangle. Do not invent a one-nautical-mile halo around it.
The Romanian public map-page number is a label split, not a rewrite of this afternoon’s piping. The live Romanian avize-radio list currently prints ARN 163/2026 next to tonight’s trageri reale item and ARN 146/2026 next to the 3 November tubulaturi plutitoare item. That is the same map-page shift this desk has already seen on this coastline: the public list attaches an older number to the newest card. Official English published 4 November does not print a number in the body retrieved tonight. Industry coastal reprints and SeaLagom number the firing as 164/26 and still number the piping as 163/26. Wednesday afternoon’s dedicated file remains ARN 163/2026, protection works, four piping corners, cancel 152159 UTC 15 December. Do not overwrite that file with tonight’s firing. Do not brief 164/2026 as “163 reprinted.” Log industry 164/26 against the 4 November English real-firing body. Log the map-page 163 tag as a label discrepancy, not as a second piping amendment.
What this is not, and the same-coast hydrographic colour
This is not a rewrite of ARN 163/2026, and it is not a Mangalia piping move. Wednesday afternoon’s dedicated Directorate piece remains: protection works, floating piping, 43-46.38 N 028-34.86 E, 43-46.30 N 028-36.62 E, 43-47.50 N 028-36.72 E, 43-47.31 N 028-34.92 E, keep clear, safe distance, dangerous to navigation, cancel 152159 UTC 15 December. That box is about 1.2 by 1.1 nautical miles around 43-46.7 N, 028-35.8 E, inshore, less than a nautical mile west of track 1’s inner waypoint. Tonight’s west wall is 028-51.00 E, on the order of 10 nautical miles east of those piping longitudes. A live-fire rectangle and a floating-hose polygon are two instruments. Do not brief Wednesday night as “the piping went live-fire.” Do not drop 163/2026 because 164/2026 exists. The hose still holds through 15 December. The firing kills itself on 12 November.
This is not a rewrite of cancelled ARN 162/2026, and it is not a Khoryv move. Sunday morning’s dedicated Directorate piece remains the last Romanian drifting-object watch on this desk: ARN 162/2026, 44-30.94 N 029-33.70 E, two-nautical-mile berth, cancel 021000 UTC 2 November. That cancel has passed. The live English page no longer lists 162/2026. Tuesday 27 October’s dedicated ARN 158/2026 remains the last Romanian wreck-move on M/V Khoryv: 43-49.50 N, 028-53.37 E, remains afloat, capsized, three missing, one-nautical-mile keep-clear. Thursday’s dedicated Bulgarian NAVWARN 766/26 remains the working five-cable keep-clear east of Shabla at 43-30.60 N, 028-43.69 E, about 15 nautical miles south of tonight’s south wall at 43-45 N. 164/2026 prints neither a drifting object nor Khoryv nor 44-30.94 N nor 43-49.50 N. Do not brief Wednesday night as “the 44-30 N object became a firing box.” Do not replace 766/26’s five cables with a Romanian live-fire rectangle.
This is not a rewrite of NAVWARN 768/26, and it is not a Contship Jet firing. Thursday 29 October’s dedicated Bulgarian notice remains: M/V Contship Jet, IMO 9348625, sunk at 282030 UTC October 2026 in 43-07.80 N 028-45.36 E, over 20 containers adrift. Monday’s dedicated 779/26 remains four drifting containers east of Burgas Bay. Tuesday morning’s dedicated 784/26 remains a drifting tank east of Ahtopol. Wednesday night’s dedicated 789/26 is Akademik, one nautical mile, through 30 November. 164/2026 does not name Contship Jet, does not print 43-07.80 N 028-45.36 E, and does not print a container count. Kaliakra and the Romanian 43-50 N firing box are not the same plot. Do not convert Wednesday night’s live fire into Saturday’s dedicated container watch because both sit on the western Black Sea coast.
This is not ARN 123/2026, and it is not ARN 146/2026. Official ARN 123/2026 remains the separate coastal-protection works farther north-west: until 31 January 2027, anchors marked by orange buoys, 43-56.48 N 028-38.90 E and three other corners, cancel 312130 UTC 31 January 2027. That box sits north-west of tonight’s north-west corner and prints orange buoys, not live fire. Official ARN 146/2026 remains the missing port-hand light buoy at 43-48.17 N 028-33.72 E. Official ARN 41/2026 remains the starboard light buoy out of position at 43-47.92 N 028-34.68 E. Those are buoyage defects inshore of the piping. They are not 164/2026. Do not brief the firing box as a replacement for a missing buoy.
This is not Wine Trader, not Royad Mammadov, and not Progress IV. ARN 145/2026 remains the 15 October fire-and-unmanned notice on M/V Wine Trader at 45-00.40 N 029-59.92 E. ARN 141/2026 remains M/V Royad Mammadov in danger of sinking at 44-27.64 N 029-46.90 E. ARN 118/2026 remains M/V Progress IV sunk at 44-37.64 N 029-48.14 E, two-nautical-mile safety zone. 164/2026 names none of those hulls. A DPA who briefs Wednesday night as “Wine Trader’s box went live-fire” has borrowed a 15 October fire position and has dropped the unnamed firing that is the whole of this notice.
This is not yesterday afternoon’s dedicated NAVAREA III 0168/26, and it is not Wednesday afternoon’s dedicated 0169/26. 0168/26 remains weekly group 44, the 3 November in-force list, cancel 092359 UTC 9 November, and does not print a Romanian firing number. 0169/26 is the Britoil Centurion oceanographic track in the Central Mediterranean. Neither number prints 43-45 N 028-51 E. Romanian coastal ARNs do not appear in 0168/26’s 2026 list. SafetyNet at 1200 UTC and 2359 UTC will not carry 164/2026 merely because 0168/26 is in force. Keep the Directorate file in the master’s Black Sea coastal pack alongside the NAVAREA III wrapper, not inside it. This is also not NAVAREA IX 424/26’s 3–4 November Pakistan firing box, which cancelled at 040700 UTC on 4 November, and not 414/26’s November Pakistan series around 24 N. Those are Arabian Sea products. They do not belong on a Romanian 43-50 N watch.
This is not unused 797/26, and it is not a Mentor firing. SeaLagom English 797/26, M/T Mentor, IMO 9340374, 43-25.10N 028-37.00E, 1435 UTC 4 November, drifting south, unlit, unmanned, is not on official Bulgarian or official English NAVWARN boards tonight and sits south-west of tonight’s south-west corner. Do not promote Mentor onto 164/2026. Do not convert a Bulgarian drifting-tanker reprint into a Romanian live-fire box.
Operational implications
For a master inbound to Constanta, Midia or Mangalia, or running recommended track 1 in from 43-47.59 N, 028-50.86 E, Wednesday night is a two-morning live-fire problem east of the published landfall before it is a war-risk rewrite. The Directorate printed a 10-by-12-nautical-mile rectangle whose west wall sits on the landfall longitude, named 0700–1200 UTC on 11 and 12 November, and named a 121300 UTC 12 November cancel. Real firing is a closed polygon for ships that are not in the exercise. It is not AIS-optional. It is not a port closure. The standing recommended-routes notice still tells ships to use 43-47.59 N, 028-50.86 E. A passage plan that only carried this afternoon’s piping, or that treated 11–12 November as empty because 162/2026 already cancelled, has not budgeted five hours on each of two mornings on the east side of that waypoint.
The reporting split is the operational content. 164/2026 does not reprint a mailbox. Dedicated 158/2026 still tells ships to report to MRCC Constanta on VHF 16 or [email protected]. The standing mine-and-drifting-object recommendation still asks ships to report mine-like objects on VHF 16 to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. 164/2026 does not convert Wednesday night’s firing into a confirmed mine. It also does not authorise a master to occupy 43-50 N, 029-00 E at 0800 UTC on 11 November because “no NOTAM hit the bridge file.” Log the industry 164/26 number, the 4 November publication, the four corners, the real-firing line, the 0700–1200 UTC windows on 11 and 12 November, the avoid-the-area sentence, and the 121300 UTC 12 November cancel. Do not log Khoryv, Contship Jet, Mentor, UAV, a two-nautical-mile berth, orange buoys, or a 163/2026 piping-box move that the notice does not print.
Charterers who still treat the Romanian coast as a quiet alternative to Ukrainian ports now have a two-morning live-fire box on the doorstep of recommended landfall, a six-week unnamed piping watch west of track 1, a still-open Khoryv file on a different plot, a still-open Contship Jet container watch farther south on the Bulgarian board, a still-open Ahtopol tank, and a still-open Akademik mile inside Bulgarian territorial sea. Deviation language that treats 164/2026 as a Constanta shutdown has misread a self-cancelling firing notice with two five-hour windows. War-risk underwriters will ask for the four corners, the 11–12 November clocks, the 121300 UTC cancel, and a written statement that this notice is not 163/2026, not Khoryv, and not cancelled 162/2026. They will not be answered by September’s ARN 123/2026 orange-buoy box alone, and they will not be answered by this afternoon’s piping corners.
A night transit on 11 and 12 November is not this product. The English body prints 0700–1200 UTC. It does not print 1200–0700 UTC. That is not a licence to linger on 43-50 N, 028-59 E at 1300 UTC if the range is still hot, and it is not an order to stay clear after 121300 UTC on 12 November. Give the printed windows. Keep the lookout. Do not treat the roadstead or the port as closed unless the Authority or the harbour master says so.
Keep the dedicated files on their own lines. ARN 163/2026 remains this afternoon’s dedicated floating-piping box at 43-46.4 N, 028-35.8 E through 152159 UTC 15 December. ARN 158/2026 remains the dedicated Khoryv wreck-move at 43-49.50 N, 028-53.37 E. NAVWARN 766/26 remains the dedicated five-cable Khoryv keep-clear east of Shabla. NAVWARN 768/26 remains the dedicated Contship Jet wreck. NAVWARN 784/26 remains the Ahtopol tank. NAVWARN 779/26 remains the Burgas four-container watch. NAVWARN 789/26 remains tonight’s dedicated Akademik mile. ARN 123/2026 remains the separate orange-buoy works box at 43-56 N through 31 January 2027. ARN 146/2026 remains the missing port-hand buoy. ARN 162/2026 remains cancelled at 021000 UTC 2 November. 775/26, 776/26 and 777/26 remain the two-hour e-mail, the Galata diving box through 051430 UTC 5 November, and cutter 331 through 061600 UTC 6 November. Do not recast 4 November night as a piping rewrite, as a Khoryv inshore jump, as a Contship firing, or as a Romanian port closure.
What Operators Should Note
- Log 164/2026 as an 11–12 November live-fire box, not as a rewrite of this afternoon’s 163/2026 piping. Directorate real-firing notice, published 4 November 2026. Official English on the avize-radio page. BLACK SEA. ROMANIA. REAL FIRING. 11 and 12 November 2026, 0700–1200 UTC. Corners 43-45.00 N 028-51.00 E, 43-55.00 N 028-51.00 E, 43-55.00 N 029-08.00 E, 43-45.00 N 029-08.00 E. Dangerous to navigation. Ships not in the exercise should avoid the area. Cancel 121300 UTC 12 November 2026. Romanian page: 09.00–14.00 local, cancel 15.00 local 12 November. Industry reprints: 164/26. The notice names neither hull, IMO, UAV, VHF, numeric berth nor a port closure. The Romanian map page currently labels this card ARN 163/2026; that is a list-shift, not a piping amendment. This is not 163/2026, not 162/2026, not 158/2026, not 123/2026, not 424/26, and not 768/26.
- Hold the box against the 43-47.59 N landfall, not against this afternoon’s hose. Working polygon about 10 by 12 nautical miles around 43-50 N, 028-59.5 E. West wall 028-51.00 E sits on the doorstep of recommended landfall 43-47.59 N, 028-50.86 E. 163/2026 remains 028-34.86 E to 028-36.72 E, inshore, through 15 December. Do not brief Wednesday night as that piping gone live-fire. Do not drop track 1. Do not occupy 43-47.59 N, 028-51 E between 0700 and 1200 UTC on 11 or 12 November.
- Give the printed windows, then kill the watch. 0700–1200 UTC on 11 November and 0700–1200 UTC on 12 November. Cancel 121300 UTC 12 November. Do not treat the box as live all day. Do not drop it at 1200 UTC on 11 November. Do not keep avoiding 43-50 N after 121300 UTC 12 November without a replacement ARN. Do not invent a night window or a UAV line. Watch a later ARN that moves 43-45.00 N 028-51.00 E, adds a weapon class, or extends past 121300 UTC 12 November.
- Do not invent a numeric berth outside the polygon. 164/2026 prints avoid the area. It does not print two nautical miles, five cables or 500 metres around the rectangle. Do not borrow 162/2026’s two nautical miles or 158/2026’s one nautical mile onto this box. Stay out of the four corners during the windows.
- Hold Khoryv, Contship Jet, Akademik and the Ahtopol tank on their own sheets. ARN 158/2026 remains the dedicated 43-49.50 N Khoryv wreck-move. NAVWARN 766/26 remains the dedicated 43-30.60 N five-cable Khoryv keep-clear, south of tonight’s south wall. NAVWARN 768/26 remains Contship Jet at 43-07.80 N 028-45.36 E. NAVWARN 789/26 remains Akademik, one nautical mile, Bulgarian territorial sea through 30 November. NAVWARN 784/26 remains the Ahtopol tank. 164/2026 does not reprint those hulls or those plots. Unused SeaLagom 797/26 Mentor at 43-25.10N 028-37.00E is not this box and is not an official NAVWARN tonight.
- Keep NAVAREA III and the Pakistani firing series off this polygon. Dedicated 0168/26 remains weekly group 44 through 092359 UTC 9 November and does not print 164/2026. Dedicated 0169/26 is a Central Mediterranean survey. Dedicated 424/26 cancelled at 040700 UTC 4 November. Dedicated 414/26 remains the November Pakistan series around 24 N. Sightings and mine-like objects still go to MRCC Constanta on VHF 16 or [email protected], and to the CSO. Watch a later ARN that moves the corners — not a Khoryv inshore jump and not a closed port.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining Wednesday night’s ARN 164/2026 live-firing box at 43-50 N, 028-59 E against this afternoon’s dedicated 163/2026 floating-piping watch and against the standing 43-47.59 N landfall so operators can treat 11 and 12 November mornings as a numbered avoid-the-area, not as a piping rewrite or a Romanian port closure.
