The Bulgaria 2010 Review: Defense

Politics » DEFENSE | Author: Ivan Dikov |January 6, 2011, Thursday // 22:17
Bulgaria: The Bulgaria 2010 Review: Defense Bulgarian Defense Minister Angelov with US Defense Secretary Gates in DC, June 2010. BGNES

Bulgaria Shakes Off Some Costly Arms Deals, Still Grappling with Eurocopter

Throughout 2010 the team of Bulgaria's Defense Minister Anyu Angelov has been struggling with major arms deals made by the previous Cabinets that it sees as an unfavorable and questionable legacy. 

Angelov believes that, first, the terms of the deals have been unfavorable to Bulgaria, and, second, the Defense Ministry cannot afford them, especially after the austerity measures adopted in 2009 and 2010.

The weapon contracts in question are with the Eurocopter Group, the Italian aerospace company Alenia Aeronautica, the German company Daimler-Chrysler, and the Belgian government, and were signed by the former governments of Sergey Stanishev (2005-2009), and Simeon Saxe-Coburg (2001-2005).

In December, Angelov announced the Bulgarian government managed to get both Daimler-Chrysler and Alenia Aeronautica to agree to renounce any claims on penalties worth several million euro because of delayed payments by the Bulgarian government.

The contract with Italy's Alenia Aeronautica for the purchase of 5 Spartan C-27 tactical transport military aircraft was signed in February 2006 by former Defense Minister Veselin Bliznakov for a total of EUR 91.8 M. Angelov's team has managed to renegotiate the deal by giving up the fourth and fifth planes, and transferring the 20% of the sum paid as an advance payment on the fourth plane to the total sum owed for the third plane. In addition, the overall price of the Spartan planes was reduced by EUR 12 M. The Bulgarian government also signed a maintenance contract with Alenia Aeronautica, under which it will pay EUR 25 M for maintenance costs from 2012 until 2017. Bulgaria should get the third Spartan plane by March 2011.

The deal with Daimler-Chrysler was sealed in 2003 by former Defense Minister Nikolay Svinarov. It provided for equipping the Bulgarian Army with new transport vehicles, with specific agreements for each year. Thus, in 2009, Bulgaria received 155 transport vehicles under the contract for which it owed the total sum of BGN 22.3 M. The government renegotiated the Daimler-Chrysler deal as well, saving several million euro from it.

At the same time, however, the government still remains tangled in talks with Eurocopter over the most costly deal for the delivery of combat helicopters for the Bulgarian Air Force and Navy. Minister Angelov described the talks with Eurocopter as "extremely difficult" because they have to be conducted not directly with the supplier but through the Societe Generale bank, which is the intermediary.

The contract with Eurocopter was singed by former Defense Minister Nikolay Svinarov in January 2005. Under it, Bulgaria is supposed to receive 12 Cougar helicopters for its Air Force, and 6 Panther helicopters for its navy at the price of EUR 358 M. By August 2010, Bulgaria had received 11 Cougar and 3 Panther helicopters, and had paid 60% of the entire deal – about EUR 240 M – which is the guarantee deposit.

If the Bulgarian state fails to pay the entire due sum, the bank servicing the deal can withdraw 60% of the value of each of the helicopters whose delivery has not been paid for from the EUR 240 M deposit made by the Bulgarian government. In the spring of 2010, it was revealed that as a result of the failure of the Bulgarian Defense Ministry to meet its obligations under the contract, in 2009, the French bank Societe General withdrew about BGN 76 M from the deposit. Subsequently, the Bulgarian government decided to pay all the money for the Cougars and to ask Eurocopter to renegotiate the deal in order to give up buying the three Panthers.

In December 2010, the 12th Cougar helicopter arrived from France, and was received at the Krumovo base of the Bulgarian Air Force. According to a statement of the Bulgarian Defense Ministry, the 12 Cougars for the Air Force are to be used for "combat searches and rescue operations."

In August 2010, Bulgaria's government allocated BGN 256 M from the country's fiscal reserve in order to complete several arms deals with foreign companies widely seen as problematic, including the deal with Eurocopter.

At present, the Bulgarian Air Force and Navy cannot even use the helicopters already delivered to them because under the terms of the deal they are not entitled to do that until the accounts have been fully settled. Angelov indicated that Eurocopter had very little desire to renounce the penalties worth EUR 12 M that Bulgaria has to pay for delaying its scheduled payments. He has sent a letter to the French Defense Minister asking him for helping for reaching a settlement with Eurocopter in January 2011.

In another rather ingenious scheme that the Defense Ministry came up with in the fall, it plans to sell a total of six Mi-17s and six Mi-24s Soviet-made helicopters, and to use the money to modernize three Mi-17s. If such a deal is executed, the Bulgarian armed forces will be left with six Mi-17s and six Mi-24s in total.

In February, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry received the delivery of 25 SandCat vehicles from the Israeli-based company Plasan. The armored 4x4 vehicles were delivered after Plasan, in cooperation with Oshkosh Defense, fulfilled the contract awarded to the firm in 2008. 

Bulgaria Puzzled Anew by Arms Deal for French Corvettes

In November, it became clear that the notorious arms deal about Bulgaria's purchase of two corvettes from France is still up in the air. Defense Minister Anyu Angelov revealed unexpectedly the negotiations on the French arms purchase have been frozen, while for all practical purposes the deal had been reported to have been canceled by Bulgaria for lack of funds.

After a tender in 2007, the French company "Armaris" planned to sell to Bulgaria 2 corvettes for BGN 1 B. French President Sarkozy first put on the table the corvettes' purchase in 2007 when he visited Sofia after his diplomatic triumph with the release of the Bulgarian medics jailed in Libya.

Bulgarian PM Borisov claimed to have canceled the deal in October 2009 during a visit to Paris, stating on that occasion that the corvettes were not feasible because the country's previous rulers had not slated any money in the budget for such splurge. Back then Borisov said Sarkozy and his Cabinet showed understanding with respect to Bulgaria.

However, Angelov made it clear the deal was not canceled altogether. He said the talks were frozen because initially Armaris won the tender by offering a price of EUR 187 M per vessel; subsequently, however, the price grew to EUR 498 M for the two corvettes, or EUR 249 M each. The deal was actually included in a declaration for strategic partnership that Sarkozy and ex PM Stanishev signed in Paris on July 4, 2008; it was frozen after that.

Bulgaria's Defense Ministry first announced the tender for four corvettes in 2005. The Dutch firm Medvede won initially but after that the results of the tender were revised by the Ministry. After the Stanishev-Sarkozy meeting in Paris in July 2008, the deal was downsized to two corvettes. Subsequently, France offered Bulgaria licenses for the construction of military and commercial ships in Bulgarian shipyards but this offer failed to materialize.

While the Defense Ministry ended 2009 with debts amounting to BGN 580 M, it has managed to reduce them, and will end 2010 with debts of BGN 132 M.

The Worst War of the Bulgarian Army: Defense Minister vs. President

A conflict between Defense Minister Anyu Angelov of the center-right GERB Cabinet and Socialist President Parvanov has been exacerbated over 2010 for a variety of issues, with the gist of the conflict appearing to be the intransigence of the President, who is the ultimate Commander-in-chief by law, to appointments and decisions made by Angelov.

Since April, Angelov and Parvanov have argued over the promotions of senior officers and over crucial appointments. For months, Parvanov refused to approve first one and then another nominee of Angelov to head Bulgaria's military intelligence, with the institution formally known as the Military Information Service remaining in the hands of an acting deputy director as a compromise.

The Angelov-Parvanov conflict culminated in December in mutual accusations and public statements of wide-ranging differences, with Bulgaria's Defense Minister Sending a letter to the media containing all-out criticism against President Georgi Parvanov's vision for the development of the armed forces.

The President accused Angelov of concentrating power in his hands and bringing the armed forces back in time before the 1989 changes, and of "making armed forces for export" which will be only capable of participating in missions abroad. Angelov in turn has argued that the Bulgarian armed forces can guarantee the defense of the country "but not in the conditions of a time gone by when the state leaders feared everybody and everything, and the "enemy was at our border." The conflict will probably only die down at the end of 2011 with the expiration of Parvanov's second term in office.

Bulgaria Vows to Stay in Afghanistan 'till the End'

In 2010, Bulgaria expanded its support for the NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan, with both Defense Minister Angelov and Foreign Minister Mladenov making clear-cut declarations that the outcome of the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan is crucial for Bulgaria's national security, and that Bulgarian forces will remain in Afghanistan as long as they are needed there, without setting withdrawal deadlines.

At the end of 2010, Bulgarian troops in Afghanistan surpass 600 (with 536 at the start of the year), situation in three regions – security units in Kandahar and Kabul, and medics in Helmand. Bulgaria also has a military police presence in Afghanistan - one military police officer as part of the EUPOL Afghanistan mission. While boosting its contingent with additional 70 rangers, Bulgaria also gave up a previously debated plan to consolidate its troops in one location in Afghanistan. Bulgaria has also provided the Afghanistan security forces with a certain amount of weapons, ammunition, medicines, and other supplies.

Throughout 2010, Bulgarian security forces in Afghanistan stopped at least a dozen major attempts to breach the crucial Kandahar Airport, which has been the target of numerous rocket attack by Taliban insurgents. In January, a rocket attack wounded severely four Bulgarian soldiers but all of them survived.

Controversial statements made in the summer of 2010 by Bulgarian Defense Minister Anyu Angelov – after his talks with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates – suggesting Bulgaria will be training and sending to Afghanistan a combat unit turned out to be an embarrassment for the Borisov government and have since been renounced.

During Angelov's surprise visit to Afghanistan in November, General David Petraeus, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) praised highly the efforts of the Bulgarian soldiers in Afghanistan. Angelov and Petreaus discussed the future deployment of three Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams (OMLTs), one of which will be a joint Bulgarian-American team. Additionally, 10 Bulgarian instructors will arrive in the Kabul Military Training Center, as well as two more Bulgarian staff officers in NATO's Training Mission (NTM-A).

During its Lisbon Summit in November, NATO approved an exit strategy for Afghanistan, providing for transferring the fight against the Taliban to Afghan forces by the end of 2014. 

Bulgaria to Create Own "CIA" as Part of New National Security Strategy

As early as May, Bulgaria's Defense Minister proposed the merging of intelligence services to create a mega-structure of the CIA type, which will unite the military and the foreign intelligence. Currently, Bulgaria's military intelligence is controled by the Defense Ministry, while the National Intelligence Service is answerable to the President.

According to Angelov, the new Bulgarian CIA will be created in a similar fashion to the State National Security Agency DANS, which is dubbed "the Bulgarian FBI"; DANS was set up in 2008 by merging three internal security and counter-intelligence institutions. Similarly to DANS, the new foreign intelligence structure will be under the control of the Cabinet rather than the President – an issue which has led to sparks between President Parvanov and the Borisov government.

The Bulgarian CIA might be created within 2 years in accordance with the country's new draft National Security Strategy, which is still under consideration. Angelov has also put forth the idea for creating a center for strategic analysis as part of the National Security Council.

Bulgaria in the War on Terror: 'Legitimate Target' for Al Qaeda

Bulgaria is a legitimate target of al-Qaeda because it has sent its soldiers to support the US invaders in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Lebanon-based Sunni extremist group Asbat al-Ansar announced in October. In an interview for a Bulgarian daily, Sheikh Abu Sharif, the spokesman of Asbat al-Ansar, has threatened the Bulgarian government to pull out its troops from Afghanistan before it is too late.

His statement was made in Ayn al-Hilwah Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon in southern Lebanon in the presence of the leader Haytham Abd Al-Karim Al Sa'di, aka Abu Tariq. The director of Bulgaria's National Intelligence Service Kircho Kirov has commented in response that such a warning must be taken seriously.

Asbat al-Ansar is featured in the United States' list of terrorist organizations for alleged connections with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. The leader of the group is Ahmad Abdel Karim al-Saadi, aka Abu Mahjan. After he went underground in 1999, his brother, Abu Tariq, has fronted the group.

In November, Bulgaria's Interior Ministry and the State National Security Agency (DANS) announced they had fully updated and aligned joint anti-terrorist plans. Interior Minister Tsvetanov said the Cabinet is fully prepared to counteract any terrorist threat for Bulgaria, but added so far there is no information about such possibility.

Bulgaria: Eager Substitute in the 'US/NATO Missile Defense in Europe' Team

As the Obama Administration modified subsequently the original Bush Administration plan for a US missile defense system in Europe – to shift its location from Central Europe to the Balkans – there have been reports that Bulgaria might be asked to host some of its elements. While various options appear to have been discussed in diplomatic conversations, the USA has not asked Bulgaria formally to host elements of the missile shield, US Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher revealed in May.

Bulgaria has supported in principle the establishing of a missile shield in Europe, advertised as a protection from missiles fired from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East, which, during the NATO Summit in Lisbon in November was adopted as a NATO-wide project. While for the time being, Romania and Poland are expected to host interceptor missiles and Turkey – to host the radar, Bulgaria could end up as a reserve radar location if Turkey eventually decides not to participate.

Even though Russian President Medvedev accepted in principle the NATO offer to cooperate on missile defense at the NATO summit in Lisbon in November, the exact parameters of this potential Russia-NATO cooperation remain unclear. At the same time, Russian officials, analysts, media have been uneasy over Bulgaria's potential role in the US project. In February, Russia even send a formal inquiry asking Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry to explain any missile defense talks with the USA. Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry replied that no official talks had been held for locating elements of the US missile defense in Europe on Bulgarian soil.

This occurred shortly before in April Obama and Medvedev completed their talks and singed the new START 2 treaty for downsizing the US and Russian nuclear arsenals.

In August, the Washington Post reported that the USA is close to establishing a missile shield radar station in Bulgaria or Turkey in the face of a missile threat from Iran.

Over the summer of 2010, Bulgaria's Defense Minister Angelov made numerous statements about the source of the threat to be countered by the US/NATO missile shield in Europe that at one occasion got the Bulgarian government in diplomatic trouble. Angelov has often mentioned Iran as a source of threat for Bulgaria, among other Western-allied nations, but his mention of Syria as well  led to an international scandal as Syria reportedly threatened to break off diplomatic ties with Bulgaria, with the Borisov Cabinet barely managing to put out the diplomatic fire secretly as the case leaked to the press weeks after it occurred. 

NATO Adopts US Missile Shield in Europe at Lisbon Summit

During its much anticipated summit in Lisbon in November, the leaders of the 28 NATO member states adopted as its own the project of the United States for a missile defense system in Europe.

The Lisbon Summit was the highest NATO forum since the Bucharest Summit in April 2008.

The US is already developing a long-range system of anti-missile rockets and is planning to bring parts of that system to Europe, starting with Aegis-class ships in the Mediterranean (2011) and later bringing land-based rockets to Romania (2015) and Poland (2018).

If the interceptors are to be stationed in Romania, Turkey has been rumored to be the most likely location of the X-band radar system. Bulgaria has been informally mentioned as a possible location for the latter as well. Turkey, however, made it clear that it would join the system – and potentially host some of its elements – only if its neighbor Iran is not mentioned as a threat – a formula that it managed to get through. Turkey is also reported to have made sure that the NATO missile defense in Europe will not be used to protect Israel against missile attacks.

The NATO decision mandates the alliance to create a computer program which would allow a NATO commander to use the US and short-range European systems as a single unit to shoot down attacks. The expanded missile defense system is expected to cost USD 273 M over the next 10 years. 

NATO's Lisbon Summit: New Strategic Concept, Friendship with Russia

In November, the leaders of the 28 NATO member states approved the much-anticipated new Strategic Concept of the Alliance at a summit in Lisbon, the most important NATO forum since the Bucharest Summit of April 2008. NATO's previous Strategic Concept was adopted in 1999, shortly before the attacks of 9/11, 2001, changed the global landscape and ushered into US interventions in Afghanistan since 2001 (subsequently turned into a NATO-led international mission), and in Iraq since 2003.

The 11-page new Strategic Concept restates the Alliance's commitment for each member state to defend all the others, but calls on it to improve its defenses against new threats such as cyberattacks.

The new concept, which was drafted by a group of experts led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, declares that the Alliance must improve its cooperation with 'any nations and relevant organizations across the globe that share our interest in peaceful international relations.' The concept does not name any countries, but in previous speeches NATO chief Rasmussen specified Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, as well as the United Nations, World Bank and European Union. NATO's new Strategic Concept does mention that the EU is a "unique and essential partner for NATO".

For the first time in the history of the Alliance, the NATO Strategic Concept provides for establishing a permanent force designed to train security forces in third countries. The other novelty is the stipulated creation of an "appropriate but modest civilian crisis management capability" work with civilian factors such as the EU and the UN.

During the Lisbon Summit, for the first time in its history NATO explicitly declared it poses no threat to Russia.  The document states the NATO members are convinced that Russia and the Pact are connected and outlines several areas of cooperation with Russia based on mutual interest: ballistic-missile defense, fight against terrorism, drugs and piracy, and the support for international stability.

At the same time NATO did not outline clear-cut membership prospects for Georgia and Ukraine.

The Lisbon Summit did confirm that the cooperation with Georgia and Ukraine must be based on the decisions of the Bucharest Summit in 2008. Back then Georgia and Ukraine (then under pro-Western President Yushchenko) got a murky political declaration that they can become NATO members in the future.

Bulgaria Deepens NATO Cooperation

In April, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Admiral Stavridis, visited Sofia lauding and thanking Bulgaria for its contribution to the Alliance including with respect to its foreign missions. The Supreme Allied Commander in Europe described his meetings in Sofia as both very important and extremely warm.

In August, Brigadier General Stefan Petrov, a commander of Bulgaria's helicopter air force base in Krumovo, advances to a position in the NATO air force commandment in Izmir, Turkey.

Bulgaria's Army Ever Smaller. When Will It Get Better?

At the very start of 2010, in January, Bulgaria changed defense ministers; after heading the sector for some six months, Nikolay Mladenov became the Foreign Minister, while his deputy, Gen. Anyu Angelov – the first general to hold the position since the early 1990s – became Defense Minister, vowing an ambitious program to streamline the vastly troubled and questionable reforms of Bulgarian armed forces in the past decade.

Angelov has sponsored the drafting of a new National Security Strategy that is said to be in total harmony with NATO's Strategic Concept; he has further declared that the Bulgarian armed forces can hardly hold ground outside of NATO vowing to deepen Bulgaria's cooperation within the Alliance.

A government report revealed in April that Bulgaria maintains one of the largest and most costly for the taxpayers' armies in the EU. Bulgaria is second in the EU by the number of servicemen per capita (45 from every 10 000), only behind Greece (119 per 10 000). In comparison, Romania has 35 servicemen per 10 000 people while Austria has 12. Bulgaria is also among the leaders by the amount from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) slated for defense – 2%, again only behind Greece with 2.5%. Ireland, the last one on the ranking, uses only 0.58% from the GDP. The Army spends for equipment, military research and technologies EUR 4 940 per year per serviceman while this amount in Austria is EUR 34 435, placing the armed forces far behind other EU members.

The economic crisis and austerity measures and the strategic plans of the Bulgarian military have provided for new downsizing of the army staff and the shutting of additional garrison bases. Under the latest plans, the Bulgarian Army will shed 7 100 people by 2014, Defense Minister Anyu Angelov has confirmed. As part of a reform plan, the army will lay off 5 700 soldiers and 1 400 civilians over the next four years in order to downsize its expenses.

As of December 2010, the Defense Ministry had 44 100 employees; of those, the military staff is 34 500. The landed forces, i.e. the army is supposed to number 32 000 but about 2 000 of the spots for professional soldiers remain open.

He said that in 2011 the Defense Ministry will have a budget of BGN 990 M, BGN 100 M more than in 2010. Yet, the additional fund will go for capital spending – construction and repairs of existing facilities.

Angelov has also moved to slash 30% of the senior officers and commanders of all forces.

In August, Major-General Stefan Vasilev formally took over the command of the land forces of the Bulgarian Army.

In October, the Ministry announced plans to raise the number of reservists by 3000 and allow them to participate in missions abroad.

Bulgaria's Most Important Alliance: Bilateral Ties with USA

In 2010, Bulgaria and the United States continued to boost their bilateral military ties, which appear to be even deeper than their relationship within NATO.

In the spring and the summer, Bulgarian and US forces staged joint drills at the joint-use military bases in Eastern and Southern Bulgaria.

In June, Bulgaria's Defense Minister Angelov visited Washington, DC, for six days for special talks with his US counterpart, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and other senior US military and diplomatic officials. The talks focused on the US missile defense in Europe and the geographic regions of the Black Sea and the Middle East.

In November, Mark Imblum, Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the US Embassy in Sofia, told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) that the United States provided over USD 170 M in military assistance to Bulgaria through various programs since the early 1990s.

Bulgaria's Military Cooperation with Balkan Neighbors

In October, Bulgaria offered to become the permanent host of the South-Eastern Europe Brigade after 2015. The South-Eastern Europe Brigade (SEEBRIG) is a cooperation of seven regional NATO and Partnership for Peace states: Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Romania, and Turkey. The joint military brigade is currently under transformation to become a modern mobile unit for participation in NATO and EU campaigns under the auspices of the UN. Up to now, SEEBRIG has been hosted at a rotation principle. Its first domicile was Bulgaria's Plovdiv (1999-2003), after which it moved to Constanta, Romania (2003-2007). It currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey (2007-2011) and is scheduled to be based in Larissa, Greece for 2011-2015.

In November, the Defense Ministers of Bulgaria and Greece have signed the first ever bilateral agreement under NATO's Air Policing program in the Balkans. It enables the two countries to help one another with air operations about terrorist threats from the air and about safety of air travel.

Under NATO's Air Policing program, NATO members jointly and collectively conduct air policing to preserve the integrity of NATO airspace. Air policing encompasses radar surveillance and identification of air objects. When required, fighter aircraft may be employed to assist in identification, or to assist/escort aircraft. NATO members without the necessary national assets to conduct air policing are assisted by other NATO members to ensure that air sovereignty is maintained.

In September, Bulgaria and Serbia completed their first ever joint anti-aircraft drills that took place in Shabla, Northeast Bulgaria. The Serbian armed forces were represented by a missile brigade from the Serbian Air Force. In December, Serbia expressed interest in participating in the US-Bulgarian military trainings that take place on Bulgaria territory, during Serbia's Defense Minister, Dragan Sutanovac's second visit to Bulgaria in four months. 

Bulgaria and the Largely Imaginary EU Defense Cooperation

In spite of the entry into force of the EU Lisbon Treaty providing the Union with High Representative for Foreign and Security Police in the face of Catherine Ashton, 2010 did not bring much other news in terms of boosting the common policies of the EU states in the fields of foreign policy, security, and defense. Ashton is also in charge of the European Defense Agency, a body designed to coordinate EU defense cooperation.

While Bulgaria in principle supports the common EU defense policy, its primary reliance remains with the USA and NATO.

In December, in the wake of a British-French defense cooperation deal outside the EU, France, Germany, and Poland, the countries of the so called "Weimar Triangle", issued a call for enhanced EU defense cooperation, declaring their support for transnational combat units, among other policies for closer EU defense integration and for stronger defense ties between NATO and the EU. 

Bulgarian Navy Set to Discard Submarine Force

Even though in August 2009, the Bulgarian Navy had an open-door day dedicated to the 55 years since the restoration of its submarine force, a year later the Bulgarian Defense Minister said the Navy will most likely do away with its submarine unit, according to Defense Minister Anyu Angelov. The life of the only operational Bulgarian submarine "Slava" (i.e. "Glory") expired, and it is to be retired in the coming months which will mean shutting down altogether Bulgaria's submarine force.

Bulgaria's submarine force was formally set up as an individual unit during World War I, in 1916. After the end of the war, however, it was shut down as part of the provisions of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine of 1919 in which the Allies banned Bulgaria from having submarines.

In 1954, the Soviet Union gave Bulgaria three submarines, and in 1958, two more. The Slava submarine was one of the two presented in 1958 and just turned 42. Even though it is deemed operational, it is in a deplorable condition and can only go under water for short intervals of time.

The only other Bulgarian submarine that was operation in the recent years was the Nadezhda (i.e. "Hope"); it has practically been retired for ten years because it lacks a battery. At the beginning of 2009, the Bulgarian Navy considered turning it into a museum.

The mid 1980s, and especially 1983-1985 were the "height" of the Bulgarian submarine force with four fully operational submarines. Two of them were retired immediately after the fall of the communist regime in 1989 because of lack of funds. In 2007, the general staff of the Bulgarian Navy promised that its modernization strategy will provide for purchasing two new submarines, the first of which was supposed to arrive in Varna in 2012. However, these plans have seen little development.

In July 2010, there were announcements the Bulgarian Navy will most likely acquire two second-hand destroyers from the Netherlands in 2014 but those have remained unconfirmed.

In early 2010, the senior command of the Bulgarian Navy suggested it could contribute a newly-bought second-hand frigate to the operations patrolling against Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean but such suggestions spurred vastly negative reactions from the Bulgarian government as such a mission would turn out to be very costly. In 2010, Bulgaria has been contributing one naval officer to the EU NAVFOR Somalia, EU's operation countering Somali piracy.

Bulgaria to Spend BGN 1 B on Fighter Jets in 2012

One of the major, long-anticipated modernization efforts for the Bulgarian armed forces has been the expected purchase of new multi-purpose fighter jets for the Bulgarian Air Force – a project slowly gained momentum throughout 2010.

In October, Bulgaria's Defense Minister Anyu Angelov finally revealed that the Defense Ministry will start within months its tender worth about BGN 1 B for the purchase of new fighter jets to replace the outdated MiG-21s, while modernizing its MiG-29s.

No exact amount of money the Bulgarian government plans to pay for the deal had been revealed so far, and the BGN 1 B figure mentioned by Angelov probably should not be regarded as precise. It is also unclear how many planes Bulgaria wants to purchase.

Angelov did make it clear, however, that the Cabinet will consider few other options outside the American F-16, the German-UK-Italian-Spanish Eurofighter Typhoon, and the Swedish Gripen.

The tender for the procurement of the new fighter jets for the Bulgarian Air Force will be announced at the beginning of 2011. The new plane will be selected by the middle of 2012, and the delivery should start in 2015.

Sweden's Saab was especially proactive in 2010 with respect to offering its Gripen fighters to the Bulgarian government, apparently in an attempt to balance the strong position that the United States and the major Western European powers have in Bulgaria. Bulgaria has also considered buying second-hand F-16s from the USA, but will most likely go for new planes regardless of which supplier it will decide to go for. 

Women Enabled to Hold Any Position in Bulgarian Army

With a decree from October 2010, Bulgaria's Defense Minister Anyu Angelov has made all positions in the Bulgarian armed forces available to women. It repealed a regulation from 2005, forbidding women to hold some positions in the army having to do with searching people and the serving in the National Guard Unit. As of October 2010, 14% of the Bulgarian armed forces staff was female.

Defense Industry and Military-Industrial Complex – See the 2010 Industry Review

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