Bulgaria likely to sign military deal worth $1.5 billion with US

Bulgaria is about to sign new military deals with the US after parliament approved the purchase of 193 Stryker infantry fighting vehicles for $1.3 billion and expects to buy 3D radars for combat aviation for another $200 million.

The decision on the Stryker infantry fighting vehicles was supported at the end of last week by the pro-EU parties in the parliament GERB, PP-DB and DPS, while the pro-Russian parties Vazrazhdane, BSP and the populist ITN were against.

With the purchase, Bulgaria will equip a mechanised brigade of ground forces, which is one of the country’s commitments to NATO. This deal has been blocked for political reasons for nearly a decade.

One of the main arguments against the deal came from the leader of the pro-Russian party Vazrazhdane Kostadin Kostadinov, who explained that Bulgaria is buying an old Stryker model used by the US Marine Corps, which has already been discontinued.

“I have access to classified reports. What Mr. Kostadinov said, I can’t find it in these reports,” replied Defence Minister Todor Tagarev.

He added that a Regional Center for repair and maintenance for Stryker vehicles will be built in Bulgaria, where their maintenance will be carried out. Part of the production of the machines will also be carried out in Bulgaria.

Deliveries of the machines should start as early as the third quarter of 2025 if the contract is signed quickly, and the last machines should arrive in early 2028.

On Tuesday, it became clear that the financial part of the bids for new 3D radars for the Air Force will be opened by the end of the year.

In August, the offers of five companies – “Lockheed Martin” (USA), “Leonardo” (Italy), “Elta” (Israel), “Indra” (Spain) and “Thales” (France) were publicly opened, but the opening of the price proposals was delayed. The project has been in preparation for years and is key to the protection of Bulgarian airspace and the utilisation of the newly purchased F-16 Block 70 fighters.

The project is about to cost around $250 million, and the clear favourite is the US company after Bulgaria concluded a deal for over $2.1 billion for the purchase of the fighters from the same manufacturer.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)