Bulgaria will join a multinational purchase of French CAESAR self-propelled howitzers together with Croatia, Estonia, Portugal and Slovenia, a move coordinated by France’s DGA procurement agency, according to a statement from Croatia’s defence ministry. The contract targets the modern Caesar MK2 variant on a 6x6 wheeled chassis, the configuration that has seen extensive use in Ukraine.

Croatia plans to buy 18 Caesar guns, roughly one artillery division, with deliveries expected between 2026 and 2030 and an indicative price tag of about 320 million euros. Zagreb’s broader procurement list under the same programme also includes 44 Leopard 2A8 tanks, anti-drone systems and 420 heavy Tatra trucks, bringing its total package to around 1.9 billion euros.

For Bulgaria the announcement provides the clearest indication yet of which system the army intends to acquire. Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov previously said the country would buy French CAESARs as part of a multinational project. Current planning documents envisage up to 57 mobile howitzers, enough to equip three artillery divisions and to modernise the 61st Stryamska and 2nd Tundzha brigades as well as the 4th artillery regiment in Asenovgrad. Those units would be the first to mobilise under NATO Article 5 in case of a major escalation.

Looking at Croatia’s figures provides a rough estimate of what Bulgaria’s requirements might cost. The Croatian price for one division of CAESARs implies that a similar capability today costs more than the upper limit listed in Bulgaria’s 2022 indicative budget envelope. Simple arithmetic based on the Croatian deal suggests that buying three times as many guns could approach 1.8 billion leva, although that estimate must be treated with caution.

There are several important caveats. Zagreb’s package may include logistics, spare parts, extra barrels and large ammunition stocks, and such extras can constitute a substantial share of the total price, sometimes up to around 40%. Bulgaria, meanwhile, is developing domestic production lines for 155-mm shells and propellant together with Rheinmetall, which could significantly lower the lifetime cost of ammunition for its howitzers.

On that basis, defence industry sources and planners expect the final value of a Bulgarian procurement of 57 CAESAR systems to fall somewhere in the range of 1.5 billion leva (766.5 million euros) to 1.8 billion leva (919.8 million euros). The precise figure will depend on contract scope, ammunition lots and support packages, and the requests submitted under the EU SAFE rearmament programme can still be adjusted up to spring 2026.

In any case, planners warn that postponing rearmament will push prices higher as the security environment becomes more volatile and demand for the same systems grows. For now, the Croatian announcement provides the most concrete public benchmark yet for what Bulgaria’s modernization of artillery could cost and what form it will take.