The F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft will take over the responsibility, together with allied forces, for the defence of the national airspace, Defence Minister Angel Tilvar said on Monday at the Romanian Air Force 86th Air Base Lieutenant Aviator Gheorghe Mociornita in Borcea, where a ceremony was held for the withdrawal of the MiG-21 LanceR aircraft, write Agerpres.
The Minister underlined that endowing the Air Force with the F-16 aircraft represents both a leap forward in terms of technology and the transition to the F-35 fifth generation aircraft.
Tilvar also said that the MiG-21 aircraft, upgraded to the LanceR standard, was the first step taken by the Romanian Air Force towards interoperability with NATO forces.
The Minister also mentioned the pilots fallen in the line of duty flying the MiG-21.
„Sometimes, however, the story of the operation of this aircraft in the Romanian Air Force was written with sacrifices, pain and tears. One of the most beautiful and disturbing descriptions of the noble profession of a pilot was given by Doru Davidovici, military pilot and writer, who fell on duty in April 1989, at the controls of a MIG-21 aircraft, near this air base: ‘I, Doru Davidovici, have a damned profession, the most wonderful and most wasteful. There is nothing left of the flight, air, trajectories that only sometimes disappear, a white contrail in the blue sky’, unquote. All the pilots who lost their lives taking off into the high skies in a MiG-21, never to return, will remain forever in our memory. Their flight was not broken, but continued to the squadron in the skies. Their supreme sacrifice will never be forgotten,” the Defence minister added.
Ceremonies were held simultaneously on Monday at the 71st Air Base General Emanoil Ionescu at Campia Turzii and at the 86th Air Base Lieutenant Aviator Gheorghe Mociornita at Borcea, ending with the take-off of the last MiG-21 LanceR aircraft in service at the 95th Air Base Captain Aviator Alexandru Serbanescu in Bacau, where they will be withdrawn from service.
