EADS is ready and willing to carry out the upgrade MiG-29 fighter aircraft, representatives of the European concern EADS in Sofia announced in a letter to the Defense Ministry. The letter points out once again that EADS considers the Russian company RSK MiG, which won the tender of the Defense ministry, unable to carry out the upgrade. EADS also underlines that their daughter company MAPS is the only one to have already carried out similar upgrades to NATO standards. The letter expresses the hope that the Bulgarian government will take the right decision on this part of the order for overhaul and upgrade of MiG-29 fighter aircraft. EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co), which holds 51% in MAPS, submitted documents to bid in the tender for MiG-29 upgrade. On February 19 Defense Minister Nikolay Svinarov announced that Russia’s RSK "MiG" won the tender. "Only MiG was able to get to the final stage of the tender procedure, since the other companies did not comply with formal criteria,“ Svinarov commented. The Defense Minister is expected to hold negotiations with German-Russian company MAPS (MiG Aircraft Product Support GmbH) to act as a subcontractor in the project, since the Russian company was found unable to carry out the upgrade because of lack of licenses. MAPS was set up in 1993 and carried out the upgrade of the 23 German MiG-29 jets. EADS officially announced several times that they will not act as subcontractors to the Russian company and even called on the government to change its position.