On 28 November, the Romanian Government adopted the Draft Law on the continuation of the development of the air operational capability, as part of the Initial Transition Stage of the Conception for the Gradual Building of the Air Defence Capability, within the Air Force Multirole Aircraft.

The legislative proposal will be submitted to the Parliament of Romania in order to be discussed and adopted with an emergency procedure.

According to the paper, the Romanian Government will attribute to the Government of the Portuguese Republic the acquisition contract of five F-16 A aircraft from the Portuguese surplus, a package of goods and services which includes the modernization of the F-16 aircraft which is currently in the service of the Romanian Air Force, logistic support elements and the training of the engineers.

Also, the Letter of Offer and Acceptance - LOA specific to the Foreign Military Sales FMS-type contracts will be assigned to the Government of the United States of America for the procurement of the package of goods and service complementary to the above mentioned acquisition contract.

The contract assignment will be made by respecting the provisions of Art. 22 letter f) of Government Ordinance no.114/2011, approved by Law no. 195/2012.

The Ministry of National Defence will be the signatory of the assignment contract, from the Romanian part.

The five aircraft will have the same configuration with the 12 ones that are already in the service of the Romanian Air Forces, respectively M.5.2R, and the package of goods and services includes the modernization of all F -16 aircraft operated by the Romanian Armed Forces, at a superior configuration, respectively M.6.X.

The implementation of the contracts stipulated in the draft law will enable the increase of the training level of the technical personnel and building of a major repair capability for the engines that equip the F-16, which will lead to the enhancement of the fleet availability and the decrease of maintenance costs. This solution also sets the premises for the involvement of the national defence industry in the execution of the maintenance and major repair works and modernization of the F-16s, through the economic operator assigned as maintenance center for the F-16 aircraft by the Romanian Government. This will contribute to the consolidation of the air operational capability.

The first four out of the five aircraft lot will arrive in 2020, while the last one will be delivered in 2021.

The five F-16 aircraft will join the 12 which already conduct national and NATO Air Policing missions.

The Press Office