The Bulgarian army will receive eight of the 16 new F-16 Block 70 fighter jets they ordered from the US by 2025, Bulgarian Defence Chief Admiral Emil Eftimov announced on Tuesday following a five-day visit to the US.
The delivery of the fighters was due to begin in 2023, but Lockheed Martin announced there would be a two-year delay due to production line problems caused by the pandemic.
Bulgaria bought 16 F-16 Block 70 fighters from the US, and in 2025, the delivery of four fighters was expected. The information from the Bulgarian Defence Ministry that the country will receive eight fighter jets means that the US is catching up with production.
“In 2025, Bulgaria will receive eight American F-16 fighter jets from the US. We saw the planes at (the Lockheed Martin plant in) South Carolina, they are at a different stage of completion,” Eftimov said after returning from the US, BNT reported.
At the moment, the Bulgarian Air Force is finding it difficult to carry out air policing missions over Bulgarian airspace due to the expiring resource of the Soviet MiG-29 fighters, which Bulgaria currently has. The delivery of the fighters is critical to the security of NATO’s eastern flank, as it is located 200 km from the war in Ukraine.
Bulgaria must have modernised its military airport in Graf Ignatievo to receive the new fighters, and if this does not happen by 2025, the new F-16s must be stored in the United States.
Bulgaria will have a total of 16 new fighters and 32 pilots who will be trained in the USA. After the delivery of the new fighters, the Bulgarian Air Force will need at least two years to master the use of the new fighters fully.
Bulgaria is currently conducting a procedure for the purchase of new military radars, which should support the functioning of combat aviation, and Lockheed Martin is considered the favourite again, competing with four other European companies.
Last week, Slovakia received the first two F-16 fighters of the new Block 70 modification, which uses some technology built into the F-35 stealth fighter.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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Source: euractiv.com
