Romanian Air Force resumes LanceR flying operations

After being grounded for a month, the Forțele Aeriene ale Romaniei (FAR, Romanian Air Force) resumed flying operations with the MiG-21 LanceR starting on Monday 23 May 2022 for a period of almost a year.

According to the decision of the Supreme Council of National Defence, the MiG-21 LanceR fighters will be used until 15 May 2023 exclusively for the execution of the specific missions of the Permanent Air Police Combat Service and for maintaining the flight training of the selected pilots in order to continue using this type of aircraft. After this date, the aircraft will be removed from the service of the FAR.

According to the memorandum on “Decommissioning of MiG-21 LanceR aircraft and the accelerated transition to the operation of F-16 aircraft from the FAR”, measures have been taken to speed up the process of acquiring the 32 F-16 aircraft from Norway, which will constitute, in the next period, two more squadrons within the air force. The draft law approving this acquisition has gone through the stage of legislative transparency and is in the approval circuit, and will be presented to the Romanian Parliament as soon as possible.

On 12 December 2021, Scramble Magazine reported on the procurement of 32 former Luftforsvaret (RNoAF, Royal Norwegian Air Force) F-16AM/BM Fighting Falcons.

Photo by Oscar Vis (SCramble Archive)