Mozambique Air Force jets get new lease on life

Eight MiG-21 fighters of the Mozambique Air Force have been overhauled and upgraded in Romania.

Aerostar S.A, the leading Romanian aerospace company, said its overhaul and upgrade work took 120 days for each aircraft.

Upgrades included installation of a GPS system and a modern digital flight data recorder.

"The program commenced over a year ago and has involved six single-seat and two double-seat trainer variants," Aerostar said. "Each overhaul took up to 120 days to accomplish and in effect the aircraft have been re-lifed and rehabilitated.

"In many instances the aircraft involved had not flown operationally for some 20 years."

Work on the aircraft was performed under a package deal that included the overhaul of an L-39 jet trainer and training of Mozambican ground crew and pilots.

Aerostar is a major supplier to the Romanian Ministry of National Defense but has begun to branch out into the manufacture of commercial aircraft aerostructures and maintenance, repair and overhaul services.

"The Mozambique program, which is coming to its conclusion, is proof of our capabilities in this direction," said Grigore Filip, president and general director of Aerostar. "We will feel that our mission has been completely successful when we find out that the Mozambique personnel are operating and carrying out flight training by themselves.

"Furthermore, 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."