Croatia has decided to postpone the process of purchasing new fighter jets due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The country intends to replace its old MIG-21s with more modern vectors.
The information came through the Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković, during a press conference, on the date of yesterday Thursday (02/04), to Andrej: “At the moment, this is the only logical and correct decision”.
“We will notify all countries participating in the bid submission process in writing about the respective date change”, concluded Andrej Plenković.
Regarding the participating countries and their fighters, we have proposals from the USA with the F-16, Sweden with the Gripen. There is also an order from Croatia for used Rafale fighters from , Eurofighter Typhoon from Italy and used F-16 fighters from Norway, Greece and Israel.
But there has already been a turnaround regarding fighters, because in January 2019, the government canceled Israel's $500 million order for 12 F-16 Brack fighters.
In order for the sale of Israeli fighter jets to Croatia to be possible, US approval was required. But according to Israeli TV channel Channel 10, President Trump had denied the sale because he did not approve of Israel's attitude in having added advanced electronic systems to the F-16s.
