On November 4, 2022, in Bucharest, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense signed a contract for the purchase from the Norwegian Government Defense procurement agency Forsvarsmateriell (FMA) of 32 F-16AM/BM fighters in the M6.5.2 configuration, previously in service with the Norwegian Air Force. The contract includes spare engines, spare parts and logistics, as well as training of ground technical personnel. The cost of the three-year contract is 388 million euros, the transfer of fighters to Romania will begin by the end of 2023 and should be completed during 2024. All aircraft will be delivered to Romania in working condition, with the available resource that will allow the Romanian Air Force to operate them for at least 10 years.
Norwegian Air Force F-16AM Fighting Falcon fighter (tail number "681", US military number 80-3681) (c) www.f-16.net Romania sent Norway an official request for the acquisition of 32 decommissioned F-16AM/BM fighters back in November 2021.
The contract for their purchase was concluded by Romania with the support and participation of the US government. [...]
Recall that the Norwegian Air Force has finally decommissioned all its F-16AM/BM fighters since the end of 2021 due to their complete replacement with incoming American Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighters. In total, the Norwegian Air Force from 1980 to 1984 received 72 F-16A /B fighter versions of Block 5, 10 and 15, which were assembled in the Netherlands by Fokker, and of which 60 were single-seat F-16A and 12 two-seat F-16B. In addition, Norway received one F-16A aircraft from the Dutch Air Force, and one F-16B from the US Air Force. Additionally, in 1989, Norway received two more sparky F-16B Block 15 OCU directly from the American General Dynamics production line. Of these 76 aircraft in total, 56 (including 45 F-16A and 11 F-16B) were later upgraded under the MLU program to the F-16AM/BM level, the work was completed in 2001, but constant improvements were made later. As a result, the Norwegian F-16AM/BM, by the time they were withdrawn from combat, had an M6.5.2 software configuration that allows the use of the most modern types of guided aviation weapons, including Laser JDAM guided bombs and air-to-air AIM-120D AMRAAM missiles.
Norway has ordered 52 F-35A fighters to replace the F-16AM/BM fighters, of which 37 have been received to date (including 10 aircraft remaining in the United States for personnel training).
After decommissioning at the beginning of 2022, 53 F-16AM/VM fighters (44 F-16AM and nine F-16VM) and four unmodernized aircraft (three F-16A and one F-16B) remained in Norway. On December 6, 2021, the Norwegian FMA has already signed a contract for the sale of 12 F-16AM/VM fighters withdrawn from the Norwegian Air Force to the notorious American private company Draken International, which will use these aircraft to provide combat training services to the US armed forces on a contract basis. Now another 32 aircraft have been sold to Romania.
Romania previously received from 2016 to 2021 17 F-16AM/VM fighters acquired from the Portuguese Air Force under two contracts. All Romanian F-16AM/VM are brought to a single M5 standard.2R and are part of the 53rd Fighter Aviation Squadron of the 86th Air Base in Fetesti. It is planned to refine these aircraft to the M6 standard.6. About 28 MiG-21 Lancer B/C fighters also remain in the Romanian Air Force in two squadrons, to replace which the former Norwegian F-16AM/VM were purchased.
