Romania is currently negotiating with Portugal and Greece to buy several F16 planes for the planned National Air Patrol Force. At the same time, Romania's Defense Ministry will continue its program to buy the C-27J Spartan military transport  planes, which is a longer term program. A number of C-27J Spartan planes were already supplied by Alenia – the Italian aeronautical company - and Romania has to pay the bill for these planes, said Mircea Dusa, the Defense Minister.

The F16 jets issue has been raised before. Romanian president Traian Basescu and US president Barack Obama talked about the purchase of F-16 jets during Basescu's visit to Washington back in 2011. The Romanian Government canceled purchase plans for 24 used F-16 planes in 2010. The country's Supreme Defense Council had approved a purchase plan of EUR 1.3 billion, but Romania decided to temporarily halt proceedings due to lack of funds.

editor@romania-insider.com