Romania will purchase another 40 F-16s

Romania, who has in its inventory twelve F-16AM/BM Block 15 Tape M5.2 fighter jets, plans to buy another 40 F-16s to increase it's fighter fleet to a total of 52.

The plan, reiterated by Defense Minister Mihai Fifor, includes in the first phase the acquisition of four more aircrafts, most likely all A/B variants which will join the 12 fighters purchased in 2013 from Portugal to form a first squadron of 16 jets.

The next step is a larger purchase of 36 F-16s, the Romanian Defense Minister mentioning that he already has two offers from Israel and Greece.

It is not clear what F-16 variants are in the plans of the Romanian Air Force (RoAF), if the jets are going to be A/Bs or C/Ds.

In case Romania chooses the greek offer, then its going to buy C/D versions since are the only variants operated by Hellenic Air Force.

The Greek state, which has in it's inventory 154 F-16s, will upgrade 85 of them to the F-16V standard, fitting them with modern avionics including the AN/APG-83 SABR AESA radar.

The 85 fighters which will be upgraded are Block 52 Advance and Block 52+. This means that Greece might offer for sale Block 30 and maybe Block 50 fighters.

In case Romania decide to buy Israeli fighters, it has to choose between the 40 A/B Netz put on sale by Israel in 2016, or, like Croatia, can buy F-16s C/D Barak. Probably IAF will put out of active service more of these fighters as it will receive more of F-35Is Adir.

Thus, Romania will reach a total of 52 F-16s. Their maintenance will be provided locally by Aerostar Bacau. The Romanian Defense Minister, after talks with his Croatian counterpart, said that Aerostar could also provide maintenance services for the new croatian F-16s.

Aerostar, who was in charge of keeping the old romanian MiG 21 Lancers in active service, also modernized the croatian MiG-21s back in 2003.