I ‘d still send inspectors to USA to “cherry pick” the F16s that look in better shape and say “no thanks” to the rest.

You can rest assured that is what they will do, if it comes to it. Back in the mid 90’s when we were offered “free” C-130B, a team went over at AMARC and rejected one of the birds. The guys in the Air Force are capable enough and know what to expect in this type of purchase, the politicians have no clue and most don’t care – unfortunatly it’s the latter who take the decision, not the military.

I also think Romania should go for Czech/Hungarian Gripen leasing/purchase model as most effective solution. It can gain alot from joint maintenence/training facilities and joint weapons procurement.

Right now there is nothing joint about Czech and Hungarian Gripen ops. Their aircraft are slightly different, czech ones are brand new C/D, Hungarian ones are made with wings and tails taken from old A/B models, they have no tinted canopy, etc.

Both nations train(ed) in Sweden, maintain their aircraft separately, weapons were procurred completely separately and the only common weapons between them are the AIM-120 C-5 and 27 mm gun rounds. Czechs use their aircraft only for air policing, Hungarians for multirole tasks.

Given their method of aquisition (lease to buy) they are inherently linked to th Swedish AF and FMV for quite ome time, I doubt they’ll need a third player (Romanian AF) under the same roof – and than operating second hand Gripen A/B – which would only increase bureaucracy.

IMO all this rethoric with joint training and maintenance is great in theory, but not so much in practice.

During the Cold War they operated the early model MiG-21 from dirt roads during exercises on at least two occasions.

Source please? I’ve never heard about Romanian MiG-21 ops from unprepared fields, just MiG-15s.

Only the Gripen allows them to entertain the notion of much wider road dispersal strategies than they used with Lancers.

There is no road dispersal strategy in Romania, we have very few decent roads, and none can support fighter ops like in Sweden.

Lease 14 Gripen C/Ds ala Hungry and Czech.

14 is not enough – look at the size of the country, it is larger than Hungary and Czech Republic together. Required number is 48 aircraft, with 24 as an absolute minimum (2 squadrons of 12 on two bases, Campia Turzii and Fetesti)

(Except that one guy who belives this will be an excellent stop-gap until Romania finally gets F-22 ino full service).

Not entirely his fault. Various talking heads in the MoD kept saying for years that we need a stopgap until the F-35 arrives.
The said talkingheads were either dumb by nature, or “greased” by Lockheed’s lobby.

Better to upgrade their Fulcrums then.

No way, there’s only 18 of them. That’s why the MiG-21 was chosen over the MiG-29 to be upgraded in the first place.

As to other late 4th Gen – would romania be happy to buy Russian politically and militarily.

Absolutely 0 chance, due to political reasons. Romania’s diplomatic relations with Russia are almost non-existant, we are paying the biggest price in all of Europe for Russian gas, etc…

Coming back to the issue at hand, right now some of the MiG-21 Lancers (due to be retired by 2011-2012) are going trough an overhaul or life extension program which will enable thm to seve until 2013. Add to that the fact that Romania is effectively bankrupt (we get loans from the IMF to pay wages). So there won’t be any fighter aquisition (for “free” or not) in the next two years IMO.

This news is just the latest in a row of similar newspaper rumors over the past few years regarding the possible replacement of the Lancers, here’s a few others i recall:

ex Israeli F-16 A
ex Belgian MLUs
new or used Gripens
24 ex USAF Block 25 plus 24 brand new Block 52 plus (there was even a DSCA notification to Congress over this)
barely used Italian Typhoons
former UAE Mirage 2000-5

And they can offer some upgrades.

There’s nothing to upgrade on a brand new F-16, as proposed to India :rolleyes:

Yes, Mk82 and Mk83, but not for the IAR-93.

Anyway, here’s the promised photos.
The BAEF-100P parachute retarded bomb I believe has no direct Soviet equivalent.

The SEBAV submunition dispenser was developed for the IAR-93, but never entered service. In 1997 a major tragedy happened at Craiova, when they were mounting these dispensers on IAR-93MB no.210. One of them exploded due to some stray electric current, killing 16 people (5 military and 11 civilians from the factory producing the SEBAV) That was the end of it.

– MiG-21 upgrades – especially Elbit Lancer (Python III/IV, Lizard, Rafael LDP, Mk82, Magic II)
– Czech MiG-23ML with Magic II
– Slovak MiG-29 with Magic II

MiG-21 Lancer does not have Python IV integrated, only III; in addition to what you mentioned they also have Opher IR guided bomb and Elta EL/L-8222 EW pod

Afaik the Czech and Slovak Magic II were attached to the respective aircraft just for show, no real integration occured.

The Indians integrated a number of Western weapons on their MiG-23BN/27M such as 25lb practice bombs dispenser, BAP-100 anti runway bombs, 1000lb bombs