Reuters
April 15, 2022

Romania suspends military MIG-21 flights, to speed up F-16 purchase

NATO member Romania has grounded its remaining fleet of military MiG 21 LanceR jets as of Friday given their “considerably high accident rate”, and will speed up a planned purchase of second-hand F-16s from Norway, the defence ministry said.

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Romania will continue to fly its small fleet of F-16 fighter jets acquired from Portugal, the ministry said, while allied states also have jets deployed to the country for enhanced air policing missions as part of NATO efforts to boost its eastern flank….

Romania bought its first F-16 jets from Portugal in 2016 as it works to phase out its communist-era MiGs. The ministry said it would speed up the process to buy an additional 32 F-16 jets from Norway, which will give it an additional two air squadrons.

“The available resources of the aircrafts from the three squadrons ensure … their operation for a minimum of 10 years and will form an air capability of transition to fifth-generation F-35 jets,” the ministry said.

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Romania, a NATO member since 2004, plans to raise defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product next year from 2% at present, President Klaus Iohannis said in March.

The country currently hosts over 3,000 NATO troops and will have a permanent alliance battlegroup stationed on its territory.

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Nine O’Clock News
April 13, 2022

Belgium’s PM De Croo, PM Ciuca and President Iohannis visit the 57th Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base: NATO, defensive alliance ready to defend member states territory

…De Croo made his remarks at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base he visited together with President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca.

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De Croo added that the NATO summit in Brussels established the battle group to be deployed in Romania along with three other such groups in Slovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary.

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President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday at the 57th Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base that efforts will be continued to ensure a “prompt”, “determined” and “robust” response from the North Atlantic Alliance to any possible challenge or threat.

“We will continue our efforts to ensure the prompt, determined and robust response of the North Atlantic Alliance to any possible challenge or threat. As we decided at the recent Brussels Summit, we will accelerate the Alliance’s transformation to strengthen the position of…NATO in the long run, especially on the eastern flank and on the Black Sea. We are working for making operational the four new Battle Groups as soon as possible, one of which will be in Romania. It will contribute, together with the other allied structures, to the strengthening of security on the entire Eastern Flank, in a coherent and unitary way, being a first step towards balancing the allied presence on the Flank,” said the head of state, who is visiting the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base together with Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.