Romania will buy another 12 second-hand F16 aircrafts, said Defense Minister Mircea Dusa on Friday, June 19.

In October 2013, Romania bought 12 second-hand F16 multirole fighter aircrafts from Portugal. The total price Romania paid for these aircrafts, including the upgrade done by American company Lockheed Martin, was over EUR 600 million, reports local Economice.net.

Six of the planes have already been modernized and Romanian pilots have been training on them in Portugal in the past months.

Romania is currently working on modernizing the Fetesti 86 military base which will host the first F16 fighters the country will get in 2016. The base must reach NATO standards.

The total investment in the Fetesti airbase is EUR 32 million, of which NATO provided EUR 21 million. The Romanian Ministry of Defense will cover the remaining EUR 11 million, defense minister Mircea Dusa said in May.

editor@romania-insider.com