From my Mikoyan and Gurevich Jet Fighters collection, a Romanian 🇷🇴 “Lancer” MiG-21. From an article dated from 2015 at https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/usafe-f-16s-train-with-romanias-mig-21-lancers-during-d-1692798167.

“As part of America’s continued initiative to show greater military readiness and fighting capability in Europe in order to reassure NATO allies and deter Russian aggression in the region, USAFE has sent six of its F-16CJs from Germany to train with some of the oldest jets in NATO, Romania’s ancient MiG-21 Lancers.

Reading this you are probably taken aback by the fact that a NATO member is still flying MiG-21s. Although the MiG-21’s inferior in pretty much every way to their modern 4th generation fighter counterparts, Romania’s MiG-21s are some of the most advanced versions of the type ever conceived.

Because of limited funding, Romania has not been able to purchase a western fighter for its air policing mission, yet alone for its ground attack mission requirements. In order to meet NATO standards, they put their best MiG-21 Fishbed models through a deep upgrade program with the help of Israeli aerospace defense contractors. What they ended up with was a fairly capable basic fighter platform at a bargain basement price, not just when it came to its acquisition cost but also its operational cost as well.”

By Tyler Rogoway, March 21, 2015