Bulgaria intends to take F-16 aircraft for temporary use to protect its airspace until the new F-16 versions Block 70, the Prime Minister Kirill Petkov said at the beginning of the government meeting.
“We have great progress in the search for replacing F -16 aircraft that will be a temporary replacement of new machines, the deliveries of which are delayed to Bulgaria. We received the support of [USA] that our sky should be protected,” Petkova cites cecies TASS. He noted that the main work on the search for replacing aircraft is conducting the country’s Ministry of Defense.
In 2019, Sofia entered into a contract with the USA for the supply of eight modernized F-16 versions Block 70, making an advance payment of $ 1.26 billion for this. The United States pledged to start supplying aircraft in 2023, but at the beginning of this year, the United States notified Bulgaria, that the start of the contract will be postponed until 2025 “due to violations of the supply chains as a result of the pandemia of coronavirus”.