[3] On 18 January 1941, the squadron was transferred to Grupul 5 Vânătoare (5th Fighter Group), being moved to Constanța, on the Mamaia airfield and assigned to the Dobrogea Aero Command.

On 21 June 1941, one day before the start of the campaign, the 53rd Squadron was redeployed on the Buzău aerodrome, from where it was to accompany the Romanian bombers.

The pilots of the squadron managed to shoot down 4 enemy aircraft, with the loss of 2 bombers to ground fire.

[7] The defense of Dobrogea continued with Lieutenant Constantin "Bâzu" Cantacuzino being credited with a probable victory on 2 July 1941.

[7] On 15 September 1941, a Hurricane patrol took off to accompany the airplane of Marshal Ion Antonescu, which was traveling to Nikolayev, where the funeral of General Eugen von Schobert, commander of the German 11th Army, was taking place.

The squadron left the 5th Fighter Group and was assigned to the joint German-Romanian unit I./Jagdgeschwader 4 (JG 4) at Mizil, near Ploiești.

[5] The squadron also scored the last victory over a Soviet aircraft when a Bf 109E shot down a Pe-2 on 24 August 1944, before the armistice of King Michael's Coup could fully come into effect.

[11] The first pilots got their IOC in 2017, meaning the unit could start taking part in NATO air patrolling missions.

[14] On 24 February 2022, the starting day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, two F-16s intercepted a Sukhoi Su-27 of the Ukrainian Air Force that was approaching Romanian airspace.