The Romanian Ministry of Defense has requested funds from the government to purchase the latest F-35A fighter jets.

The relevant document with the budget request from the Romanian Ministry of Defense was published on the official website of the Romanian government.

The funding allocation stage is now the last step for Romania to officially start purchasing new fighter jets.

It is currently expected that the government will approve the allocation of the priority budget to finance the start of construction of the first Romanian F-35A by Lockheed Martin.

Romania is expected to purchase a total of 48 F-35A fighter jets, of which 32 are within the initial contract and an additional 16 under the option.

The value of this procurement is over USD 6.5 billion and may be increased over time by purchasing aircraft under the option.

This purchase is expected to significantly increase the capabilities of the Romanian Air Force and complement the F-16A/B MLU fleet within the 32-aircraft contract.

The order of an additional 16 aircraft under the option will allow the country to completely abandon the F-16 and switch to a modern primary combat aircraft type.

The Ministry of Defense notes that these plans are still far from being implemented, as even the first stage of air force modernization has not yet been completed.

“We are still far from this point because 32 used F-16s ordered from Norway have not yet arrived,” the Defense Ministry noted.

Militarnyi previously reported that the Polish Air Force officially presented the first newest fifth-generation F-35A Lightning II fighter jet.

The first fighter jets, locally known as F-35 Husarz, will be stationed at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas, where Polish pilots will be trained.