Following the announcement on April 15 that the Aerostar/Mikoyan MiG-21 Lancer fleet had been grounded following a spate of accidents and inflight emergencies, Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defense has reversed that decision, with operations of the LanceRs being resumed by the Forțele Aeriene Române (FAR, Romanian air force) on May 23.
Under the new decree, the LanceRs will only be used for “specific missions of the Permanent Air Police Combat Service”, and for training sorties necessary to maintain the operational proficiency of Lancer pilots in the air defense mission. The reprieve for the Lancer is, however, temporary, and expires on May 15 next year when the aircraft will be removed from FAR service.
This U-turn is made at a time when Romania is very much a “front-line state” during the Ukraine crisis, and an important base for NATO aircraft defending the alliance’s eastern border, as well as for surveillance aircraft such as the ARTEMIS Challenger and special-mission King Airs operated by civilian contractors on behalf of the U.S. Army. The FAR’s single squadron of F-16AM/BMs—Escadrile 53 Vanatoare at Fetesti-Borcea—is currently bolstered in the enhanced air defense mission by NATO fighters, including six RAF Typhoons deployed under Operation Biloxi to 140 Expeditionary Air Wing at Constanta-Mihail Kogalniceanu. The government in Bucharest has decided to reinstate its two squadrons of LanceRs—Escadrile 711 Aviatie Lupta at Câmpia Turzii and Escadrile 861 Aviatie Lupta at Constanta—as an interim measure to ensure that a robust air defense capability is in place until the 32 ex-Norwegian F-16s can be inducted as their replacement.
That purchase of two squadrons’ worth of F-16s has been accelerated, but the process is still working its way through Romanian parliamentary procedure, and the potential delivery is still some way off. According to the defense ministry release, 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.” The same release also notes that the FAR will be given the green light to initiate steps to procure fifth-generation aircraft.