The MiG-21 Lancer came out of a modernization program in the mid 90’s to the very early 2000’s. The airframes themselves were also relatively new with some of t

The MiG-21 Lancer came out of a modernization program in the mid 90’s to the very early 2000’s. The airframes themselves were also relatively new with some of them being delivered in 1990 just prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Israel (IAI, Elta and Elbit) modernized for Romania them they have modern avionics, new engines new everything but the MiG-21 was the most problematic of the bunch (the Lancer program was a modernization program for all the Romanian MiGs).