Romania suspends military MIG-21 flights, to speed up F-16 purchase

FILE PHOTO: A MIG-21 Lancer belonging to Romania's Air Force is pushed back into a hangar during bilateral one-week training exercises "Dacian Viper 2014" with U.S. pilots at a military airfield in Campia Turzii in Transylvania, northwest from Romania's northern border with Ukraine, April 10, 2014. REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - NATO member Romania has grounded its remaining fleet of military MiG 21 LanceR jets as of Friday given their "considerably high accident rate", and will speed up a planned purchase of second-hand F-16s from Norway, the defence ministry said.

The move was unrelated to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which shares a 650-kilometre (400 mile) border with Romania.