The Croatian Ministry of Defense will soon sent a delegation to Sweden, the United States and France, as part of the request for information for the replacement of its MIG 21 still in service within its armed forces. The role of the delegation will be to determine which will be the best candidate for the JAS Gripen C/D from the Swedish manufacturer Saab, the F16 Block 70 Viper from Lockheed-Martin and the Rafale Used F3, taken from French Air Force aircraft, like the agreement concluded with Greece a few days ago. Israel and its F16 Block 30+ initially proposed do not seem to have been retained by Zagreb, probably for fear of seeing the scenario that derailed the first agreement a year earlier replay.
In 2018, the Croatian and Israeli authorities had indeed reached an agreement to the acquisition of a dozen F16 Block 30 used taken from aircraft in service with the Israeli Air Force. However, in January 2019, Washington opposed this $ 500m contract, demanding that the Israeli aircraft be delivered to Zagreb stripped of Israeli technological improvements, in a configuration identical to that of the aircraft when they were delivered. The Croatian authorities, who must quickly replace the 8 Mig 21BisD single-seater and the 4 Mig21 UMD two-seater dating from the 80s, have re-launched a call for proposals to various potential partners, 4 of them having responded (including Israel not selected by Zagreb) .
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