Bulgaria is starting negotiations with five of the world’s largest military production companies to purchase new radars for Bulgarian aviation, three of which are European, the Defence Ministry announced on Thursday.
Bids for the delivery of the 3D radars were submitted by Lockheed Martin (USA), Leonardo (Italy), Elta (Israel), Indra (Spain) and Thales (France).
“The three-dimensional radars will be delivered at the end of 2025 if a contract is signed with a contractor by the end of this year,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Colonel Dimitar Georgiev.
The military radar project is key to protecting Bulgarian airspace and to NATO’s eastern flank, which is facing heightened tensions in the Black Sea due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Without this equipment, Bulgaria will not be able to fully use the new 16 F-16 Block 70 fighters, which Lockheed Martin will deliver.
The price of the radars is estimated to be at least €200 million.
While Bulgarian military experts have been warning for several years that the army does not have military radars capable of adequately monitoring its territory, military experts have also revealed that the military sometimes uses the more advanced civil aviation radars, even though these do not cover the entire territory of the country.
Bulgaria also has serious problems with the maintenance of its current combat aviation, which relies on the outdated Soviet MiG-29 and Su-25 fighters.
(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)
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