September 28 (SeeNews) - Romania is in advanced talks to purchase 36 more F-16 fighter jets directly from the United States, Romanian media reported.
Romania, a NATO member since 2004, is in the middle of a programme which aims to replace its Air Force's Soviet-era MiG fighter jets with combat aircraft that meet NATO standards. Last year, the country received the first nine F-16 fighter jets from Portugal under the programme.
Romania will receive three more F-16 by the end of next week under the programme, The Romania Journal online news website quoted the country's defence minister, Mihai Fifor, as saying on Wednesday.
The minister also said that Romania will buy its first Patriot anti-aircraft missile system by the end of the year, as well as 10 Piranha armoured vehicles.
Romania plans to spend a total of 9.8 billion euro ($11.5 billion) until 2026 to boost its defence capabilities, the National Defence Council (CSAT) said in August.
The defence spending target of 2% of GDP was set at the NATO summit in Wales in 2014. Member states pledged to aim at spending 2% of their respective GDP on defence by 2024. The allies which were already meeting the NATO spending target pledged to aim to continue to do so. The states whose share of GDP spent on defence was below the target level also pledged to halt any decline in defence expenditure and increase spending in real terms as GDP grows.
In 2016, Romania's defence spending was 1.48% of GDP. In order to reach the 2%/GDP target, Romania has added 4.9 billion lei ($1.15 billion/1.07 billion euro) to its 2017 defence budget.
Since May 2016, Romania hosts the Aegis Ashore NATO ballistic missile defence base at Deveselu, in the country's southwestern region.
(1 euro = 4.597 lei)