By the End of the Year, Bulgaria Will Receive All F-16 Fighter Jets, Defence Minister Said

The US government and the F-16 manufacturer have assured that our country will receive all the fighter jets by the end of the year as scheduled.

• Bulgaria received the first F-16 fighter jet

This is what Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov told the Defence Committee on February 26. Minister Zapryanov also said that the certification of Graf Ignatyevo's facilities had been successfully completed, and approximately half a billion BGN have been allocated for repairs there.

"It has been definitively confirmed that we will receive our F-16 aircraft according to the schedule. Secondly, it is clear that the American inspection team is very satisfied with the condition of the infrastructure at Graf Ignatievo, and this will not be an obstacle to receiving the planes.

We will build a state-of-the-art infrastructure at Graf Ignatievo, not because of the F-16s, but because we had some of the oldest airfield facilities, inherited from the Warsaw Pact, on the Balkan Peninsula and in Eastern Europe."

The Defence Committee supported the defence budget for this year. 2.09% of the Gross Domestic Product will be allocated for the Army.

The Minister hopes that with the three-year budget framework, the government will provide funding to the military at 2.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.