Bulgaria will discuss with France and Sweden options for using its fighter jets – Novinite.com
Mirage – 2000-5 @Wikimedia Commons
Bulgaria will discuss with France and Sweden the options for using combat aircraft until the arrival of the first F-16 in 2025. Acting Minister of Defense Dimitar Stoyanov explained to BNR that talks are currently underway.
The talks with the French delegation are today, and with the Swedish delegation – on Tuesday, Dimitar Stoyanov explained.
“At the moment the tank is the Mirage – 2000-5, which is a good aircraft, which was decommissioned in France just a month to a month and a half ago. The Swedish one is expected to arrive on September 20 and we are still waiting for answers from the USA and from Israel. I don’t even want to believe that there is an option for someone else to come and guard instead of us.”
The issue became important after it became clear that the delivery of the F-16 will be delayed until 2025, and the resource of the currently used MiG-29 is until 2023.
Dimitar Stoyanov said that Bulgaria will buy two engines at the moment and six will be repaired in Poland so that their resources can be increased.
“We currently have a resource until mid-2023, but with very limited flight activity. For me it is very disturbing. The goal is to take engines, install them on MiG-29 aircraft, in order to provide in time – at the end of 2023 – the function of combat duty, the fulfillment of the task “Air Policing”. We have money. More than 40 million have been set aside“.
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/BNR