Romania and U.S.A. pilots join for 'Dacian Viper' air exercise

Romanian military personnel prepared a MIG 21 Lancer to take-off after the opening ceremony of the Romanian-US exercise "Dacian Viper 2014" at the 71st Air Base at Campia Turzii on April 10, 2014.

The pilots did air interception exercises, air combat, but without real shooting.

The Romanian and American pilots started last Thursday a week-long bilateral exercise called Dacian Viper 2014, on the military aerodrome at Campia Turzii, central Romania.

"More than 200 Romanian servicemen, pilots and technical staff and about 250 servicemen of the U.S. Air Force, from Base Aviano in Italy, take part in it", said Commodore Marian Petrus, air base commander at Campia Turzii.

The Romanian pilots will fly American F-16 fighter planes and the American ones will fly MIG 21 Lancer aircraft of the Romanian Air Force, as part of the Dacian Viper 2014 exercise.

For the whole week, the pilots will do air interception exercises, air combat, but that there would be no real shooting, only a simulated one, according to exercise manager Adrian Motorca.

"The exercise was planned one year ago and is a normal training within NATO", said Colonel Christopher Austin, commander of the American Squadron 510 in Aviano, adding that six F-16 planes were brought to Romania's air base.

The Romanian government announced last summer the purchase of a 12-strong squadron of used F-16 multirole fighters from Portugal, to replace the current Soviet-built MIG-21 Lancers jet fighters, some 48 in number, which, after 40 years of missions, are towards the end of their flight resources.