When the program started, R-77 was not in any invetory in the world and AIM-120 was too new to be sold to a non allied country which Romania was back then.
If you want to talk about a possible BVR missile on lancer then you are talking about Derby.
We spent all R-27 before retiring the Mig-29.
Cost of the program was 300-400 Million $.
Contraire to many thought , Elta 2032 has a long range for the size of antena that is packed in that little cone.
Anyway the Lancers are close to their retirement from our air force :((.
New stuff is coming, no one ever know what, Ro Mod announced the amount of money that are available alone for Airforce acquisition (5 Billion Euros for fighters, air-air and air-ground ammo) and the need was for at least 48 new multirole planes.