Romania has announced an international tender for the purchase of medium- and short-range air defense systems.

The announcement was posted on the tender monitoring website.

The program is designed to last for five years and is divided into two stages. The Romanian government plans to spend about $4.2 billion on its implementation.

As part of the program, Romania plans to gradually acquire 41 air defense systems.

The main tender candidates are the Norwegian-American NASAMS system, the German Iris-T, the French VL Mica, and the South Korean M-SAM.

The main criteria will be operational characteristics, cost, and compatibility with NATO air defense systems.

To date, Romania’s air defense is equipped with 4 batteries of American MIM-104E/F Patriot PAC-2 and GEM-T/PAC-3 long-range systems.

Another American air defense system in service with the Romanian Armed Forces is the 48 Hawk Phase IIIR air defense system.

Romania also uses six launchers of the Soviet-era S-75M3 air defense system.

The Militarnyi previously reported that the Romanian Air Force had started receiving used Norwegian F-16 fighter jets.

In November 2022, after several months of negotiations between the Norwegian and Romanian parties, an agreement worth €388 million was signed.

The agreement includes the transfer of 32 F-16 fighter jets along with spare parts and auxiliary equipment, as well as maintenance services.

In addition, it was reported that a large batch of JLTV armored vehicles had arrived in Romania.