On 6 August 1998, the Romanian Government approved the introduction into series production of the upgrade program for 24 IAR-99 Șoim out of which 4 were supposed to be delivered by 2001. The Romanian Ministry of National Defence signs a contract for those 24 aircraft on 20 April 2000, reducing that number to 12 on 14 December 2000. Only seven of these are to be new-built (numbers 719-725), and five upgraded from existing IAR 99 (numbers 709, 711, 712, 713, 717). These were delivered between 2003 and 2008, gradually replacing the L-39 Albatros' in service with the Romanian Air Force's training school.