The Romanian Ministry of Defense has to decide, by the end of 2008 beginning of 2009, over the successor of the old MIG-21 for the Romanian Air Force. Offers had been made by US Lockheed Martin (F-16), Swedish Griffen (JAS 39) and Italy Aerounautica (Eurofighter Typhoon).
The sum that the Romanian Gouvernamt is willing to pay for a fleet of new multi-purpose fighter jets is about 13 billion euro (including costs of maintenance).
Although there are 3 competitors for the Romanian contract, it seams that the battle is between the battle harden US F-16 and the new Swedish JAS-39.
F-16 has a great portfolio and was battle tested in many conflicts but the costs are far greater than the ones for the JAS-39 which comes with full free maintenance for the life-time of the aircraft not only of the first 2 years after purchase as the American counterpart.
Users of Lockheed Martin F-16: USAF, Royal Danish Air Force, Belgian Air Component, Chilean Air Force, Royal Bahraini Air Force, Egyptian Air Force, Hellenic Air Force, Royal Jordanian Air Force, Indonesian Air Force, Israeli Air Force, Italian Air Force, Royal Moroccan Air Force, Royal Netherlands Air Force, Royal Norwegian Air Force, Royal Air Force of Oman, Pakistan Air Force, Polish Air Force, Portuguese Air Force, Republic of Singapore Air Force, Republic of China Air Force, Republic of Korea Air Force, Royal Thai Air Force, Turkish Air Force, United Arab Emirates Air Force, Venezuelan Air Force
Users of Griffen JAS-39: RAF, Swedish Air Force, South African Air Force, Hungarian Air Force, Czech Air Force.
Users of Eurofighter: RAF, Austrian Air Force, Saudi Arabia Air Force, Italian Air Force, Spanish Air Force, Germany Luftwaffe
Note that only one ex-communist est European country uses the F-16.
