Romanian aerospace company Aerostar has completed the overhaul and modernisation of the Mozambique Air Force’s eight MiG-21 Fishbed fighter aircraft.
Under a contract signed in 2013, the company upgraded six single-seat and two double-seat MiG-21 trainer variants at its facility in Bacau.
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New equipment such as a GPS system and an advanced digital flight data recorder were installed on the aircraft. Each overhaul took 120 days.
The contract includes a training programme for Mozambique ground staff and pilots.
A twin-seat L-39 Albatros jet trainer aircraft was also upgraded under the contract.
The aircraft has several hours of life left as majority of them had not flown operationally for around 20 years, Aerostar said.
The company has handed over six refurbished MiG-21s to the air force, the remaining two aircraft will be delivered this month.
Aerostar president and general director Grigore Filip said:
"We believe that this type of upgrade/overhaul/training solution brings advantages to countries with precarious resources and we shall increase our efforts to interest them in our capabilities."
Manufactured by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau, MiG-21 is a supersonic jet combining both fighter and interceptor characteristics in a single aircraft. It is designed to conduct very short ground-controlled interception missions.
The aircraft is also operational with the air forces of Angola, Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Libya, North Korea, Romania, Serbia and Vietnam.
