NATO member Romania signs deal with US to buy F-35 jets

NATO member Romania on Thursday signed a deal with Washington to buy 32 F-35 jets, citing an “acute need for credible deterrent and defensive capabilities” as war rages on in neighbouring Ukraine.

With an estimated cost of $6.5 billion approved by Romania’s parliament, it is the most expensive military purchase by the poor eastern European country, which has gained in strategic importance since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The F-35A combat aircraft, which are expected to begin arriving in the early 2030s, will “significantly strengthen” Romania’s defence capabilities, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said at the signing ceremony.

“Unfortunately, the current geopolitical situation demonstrates the acute need for credible deterrent and defensive capabilities, both at the allied level and the national one,” Ciolacu said.

Romania’s decision to buy the fighter jets will “significantly contribute… to our collective security”, US Ambassador Kathleen Kavalec said in her remarks at the event.

The US State Department said in September it had greenlit the sale of the F-35A aircraft and related equipment.

With the purchase agreement, Romania “becomes the twentieth member of the F-35 global alliance,” the jets’ producer, US aerospace and defence giant Lockheed Martin, said in a statement.

The order allows Romania to “get in line with the rest of the world” and be “on par with others” and is “also a way to show that we take into account the fact that this war in Ukraine could spill over Ukraine’s borders”, security expert Hari Bucur-Marcu told AFP.

Romania inaugurated an F-16 training centre last year, where Ukrainian pilots began training in September, and is hosting more than 5,000 foreign troops, the largest contingent anywhere in NATO’s southeastern region.

Romania in late September signed an agreement with the United States for a $920 million loan to modernise its military capabilities.

The F-16 aircraft that are being used by the Romanian Air Force will start to be decommissioned around 2034, with completion around 2040. They began replacing the Soviet-heritage Mig-21 LanceR jets last year.