site.btaDelivery of F-16 Second Batch May Be Delayed by Year - Defence Minister

Delivery of the second batch of eight F-16 jet fighters for the Bulgarian Air Force will probably be delayed by a year, caretaker Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov said here on Tuesday.

Under two contracts with the US, Bulgaria has purchased a total of 16 F-16 Block 70 aircraft worth USD 2.5 billion-plus in the largest armed forces modernization project so far.

In early 2025, delivery of the jets began under the first contract signed in 2019, and on December 18, 2025 all eight aircraft were officially presented.

"We are renegotiating the payment for the F-16, and this year we will pay half of the funds planned owing to a delay in the delivery of the second batch of eight," Zapryanov added. The delay is due to the manufacturer's inability to produce up to four aircraft monthly, as up to three are finished every month now. The Defence Minister warned that unless a regular budget is adopted, there will be problem with the payments for both the jets and the Stryker combat vehicles.

"The analysis of the status of the armed forces invites the conclusion that, basically, they perform their duties under the Constitution and the Defence and Armed Forces Act," Zapyranov said further at the annual conference of the Chief of Defence on Tuesday.

"The past year gave an impetus to the personnel fill and modernization of the armed forces, and the military's aid to the population is highly appreciated. This is just a beginning, we are far from a status of state-of-the-art armed forces fully compatible with NATO," the Defence Minister said.

In his words, the armed forces still have in their inventory a huge quantity of obsolete Soviet equipment which is unserviceable and is not used anywhere. "The delayed capital expenditures compel us to resort to the SAFE [EU Security Action for Europe] Instrument as a catalyst of modernization," Zapryanov added. "Unless we speed up an approval of the two loan agreements with the EU, we may become laggards because all Member States, taking advantage of this mechanism, have rushed to contract the manufacturers, and whoever signs the first contract will take the first deliveries," he pointed out. He called on the National Assembly to mandate the government to conclude such loan agreements if the budget law is extended. "Work on nine [armed forces modernization] projects will continue from then on," he said further.

Zapryanov said that the armed forces undermanning has been reduced by just 2 percentage points. "Our armed forces need a new infrastructure for aircraft, ships and anti-aircraft missile systems," he added, recalling that a draft on an increase of defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2030 has been drawn up, but it can be approved by a Parliament-elected cabinet. "Without financial resources, there is a serious risk that the ongoing processes in the armed force may come to a halt," the Defence Minister warned.