Parliament Approves Purchase of Five More Air-Defence Missile Systems

Parliament approved the acquisition of five additional IRIS-T surface-to-air missile systems from Germany for more than €1.1 billion. The deal will be financed through the European SAFE programme, despite objections from 'Vazrazhdane' party.

The agreement to acquire an IRIS-T air defence system was first launched in 2022, when the current Defence Minister held the same post in a caretaker government. At the time, Bulgaria agreed to purchase one system. Parliament has now authorised the acquisition of five more.

The total value of the agreement is €1.1 billion. It will be financed through the European SAFE programme, established in 2025, which provides EU member states with access to €150 billion for defence projects. During the parliamentary debate, only Vazrazhdane voiced reservations.

'Vazrazhdane' party objected to spending money on expensive weapons systems which, in its view, are ineffective in modern warfare involving drones.

Dimo Drenchev – Vazrazhdane: “Bulgaria must obviously be an extremely wealthy country, given that spending €1.1 billion causes no concern whatsoever in this chamber. I get the impression that your ministry is preparing to fight a 20th-century war rather than a 21st-century one.”

Dimitar Stoyanov, Minister of Defence: “As for whether we are preparing for a 20th-century war, Mr Drenchev, I understand that you have greater expertise than the entire Ministry of Defence. The war in Ukraine involves not only slow, low-flying drones, but also jet-powered drones travelling at speeds of between 600 and 800 kilometres per hour, at altitudes of 4,000 to 6,000 metres. How would you shoot those down? With anti-drone systems? With fighter jets, as they’re currently doing in Russia?!”

The rest of the opposition supported the deal but called for more information about the next stages in the modernisation of Bulgaria’s air defence.

Hristo Gadjev – GERB-UDF: “This summer, we also purchased and signed a contract with France for three coordination radars. Now we have German air defence systems and French radars. Both systems are NATO-compatible, but integration is still an issue. Has their integration been considered, and will it incur additional costs within the budget?”

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Dimitar Stoyanov, Minister of Defence: “I am absolutely convinced that the integration of the Thales radars with the systems will be achieved — and it is already a reality. There is another important point: the systems themselves come with radars, so they can also operate independently.”

Ivo Tsanev – Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF): “We should instead look at expanding the coverage of anti-drone systems, as discussed yesterday. We should explore whether spending on anti-drone systems can be increased under the SAFE programme, because the €80 million allocated so far is not enough.”

Dimitar Stoyanov, Minister of Defence: “We will take the initiative to procure, within the framework of this project and under the accompanying contract, anti-drone defence systems, because when a complex is deployed on-site or on the move, it must have anti-drone coverage. The idea is for every single complex to have such a system.”

Atanas Slavov – Democratic Bulgaria: “We also hope the Ministry of Defence is making sufficiently sound plans both to acquire anti-drone systems for jamming and kinetic interception, and eventually to acquire long-range surface-to-air missile systems, since the plan we are voting on concerns medium-range systems.”

Dimitar Stoyanov, Minister of Defence:

“We need many things. It was no coincidence that, when we drew up the investment programme for 2023–2024, we said that more than 50 billion leva would be needed to modernise the Bulgarian Armed Forces.”

The agreement was approved with the support of all parliamentary parties except Vazrazhdane.