The replacement of Soviet-made MiG-21 Lancer...

The Romanian government will send a proposal to acquire 24 used F-16 fighters to parliament for a vote after the Supreme Defense Council, headed by President Traian Basescu, approved the plan late on Tuesday.

"The project"s price is around $1.3 billion and includes the purchase of 24 updated and fully equipped jets, technical support for 3-5 years, logistic support, flight simulators, pilots and staff training, and transportation," the statement said.

The service life of several dozen MiG-21 fighter jets, developed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the mid-1950s and upgraded for the Romanian Air Force by Elbit of Israel and Aerostar S.A. of Romania in the 1990"s, expires in 2013.

According to open sources, only 48 MiG-21s are still in service with the Romanian Air Force.

Unofficial media reports earlier said that the U.S. government was ready to give the F-16s for free, if Romania would take responsibility for modernizing them, training the pilots

Pages: [1] 2