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https://www.defensenews.com/global/euro ... ocurement/Bulgaria approves draft deals to buy F-16s in record defense procurement
6 minutes ago
Bulgaria’s Council of Ministers has approved four draft agreements with the United States for a total of almost $1.3 billion
to acquire eight F-16 Block-70 fighter jets and related equipment from Lockheed Martin.
Before the final agreements are signed,
they must be approved by the Bulgarian parliament and the U.S. Congress.
Bulgarian Defence Minister Krasimir Karakachanov said the cabinet hoped that
U.S. lawmakers could reduce the final price by about $60 million,
as reported by local daily Dnes.
Of the eight aircraft,
six fighter jets are to be supplied in a one-seat variant,
and two aircraft in a two-seat variant.
Deliveries are scheduled to be completed by 2023.
The Bulgarian Air Force plans to replace its outdated Soviet-designed Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets with the F-16s.
In May, Karakachanov said the government could end its negotiations with the United States
and instead turn to
As part of the country’s tender to acquire new combat aircraft, Italy offered the Eurofighter Typhoon, and Sweden the Saab JAS-39 Gripen.
The acquisition is to mark Bulgaria’s largest foreign defense contract since 1989.
“Lockheed Martin welcomes the Bulgarian cabinet’s decision
to accept the Letter of Acceptance from the U.S. government for eight F-16 Block 70 aircraft,
the most advanced version of this benchmark NATO fighter available today,"
Lockheed Martin said in a statement.
"This is another important milestone along the path to procuring the F-16 Block 70,
which will be supported by a long-term program of partnership between the U.S., Bulgaria, Lockheed Martin, and Bulgarian industry and academia.”
https://www.bnt.bg/en/a/bulgarias-gover ... uy-8-f-16s
http://www.pan.bg/view_article-49-48446 ... -s-41.htmlBulgaria’s government on July 10 voted to approve a draft contract
worth about a billion and 200 million USD to buy eight F-16 fighter jets from the United States.
The defence minister assured that the discount from the price did not reduce the combat capabilities of the fighter aircrafts.
The approval of the draft contract comes six months after
the Parliament voted a mandate to the government to
conduct negotiations with the US on the acquisition of F-16s.
After the end of the meeting,
Defence Minister Krassimir Karakachanov, Deputy Minister of Defence Atanas Zapryanov conducting the negotiations as well as the whole expert group
said the price for the planes would be 1 billion and 200 million dollars
and that it was reduced by nearly $ 200 million.
The deal involves six one-seater and two two-seater of the fighter aircrafts.
It will be signed, if the Parliament approves the contract.
It has four key documents - for the delivery of the aircraft,
the delivery of the combat equipment for them,
the supply of simulators and l
ogistics equipment.
The price includes training for pilots and ground crew.
The next steps in the parliamentary process will be
examination of the deal by the Parliament’s defence committee, after which it will be debated and voted on by the MPs.
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And the motives of the Slovaks to choose the American proposal is the same as the Bulgarian one -
it's just the better fighter that gives more defensive capabilities.
However, unlike the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense,
this in Bratislava has made a very detailed comparison of the possibilities of both the F-16 and the Gripen proposed by Sweden.
In which US planes beat 4: 1, shows the report of the Slovak Defense Ministry, which has 24 hours.
The F-16 is better
operational and technical
abilities against
his Swedish competitor,
Americans offer a better pilot training program and have better interoperability with NATO operations.
The fourth point comes from the comparison of the industrial cooperation programs
offered by the American F-16 producer Lockheed Martin and the Swedish Grippe SAAB respectively.
Americans benefit from the fact that they also produce the Black Hawk helicopters and
include a Slovak plant in their maintenance program for these machines.
Bulgaria also has such factories.
In fact, the only category in the final evaluation,
in which the Gripen offer is better, according to Slovakia's estimate,
is the logistic support package for ground fighters.
In fact, when comparing F-16, block 70 and Gripen from the C / D modification,
as was the case with Bulgaria,
a new modern fighter is compared with one that is already outdated.
At least, according to Slovak experts.
"This version of the aircraft has now reached its peak in technical capabilities.
As SAAB plans to start production of the E / F version in the future,
the C / D version is not being upgraded.
Compared to the F-16 block 70/72, the JAS-39 C / D Gripen has a lower payload armament,
a lower fueling capacity,
a lesser range of tactical flights,
a lower flight duration at cruising speed,
lower speed or vertical speed (RoC) and significantly lower acceleration.
Airplane avionics (older generation radar,
older early warning system, older components designed to protect the aircraft) is older, which means that it
is no longer able to
meet the needs as well
of current as well as of
future airs
operations
The tactical and technical JAS-39 C / D Gripen option is an insignificant opportunity to replace Air Force fighters in Slovakia,
as we will replace an old aircraft (MiG-29) for a new and more efficient fighter
but we will not have the opportunity to develop -
the technical peak of this plane has already been reached, "the report said,
in which the Bratislava Ministry of Defense compared two proposals to replace the old MiG-29.
"With the options offered by the F-16 block 70/72,
in practice we are talking about a new aircraft as it has a high combat value
and will be more than a worthy opponent of the 5th generation of fighters
for several decades in the future "Is the assessment of the US fighter.
Similarly, Bulgaria and Slovakia had to choose between the lower Gripen initial price,
but not much of the armament and the higher the F-16.
However, the American aircraft is better armed -
there are more points for rocket hanging, more ammunition in the cannon, flies farther.
And very important, according to the Slovaks,
missiles in the Americans are weapons,
which allows them to participate in combat missions while in Gripen it is not.
In addition, the US fighter could be used after 2040,
and then the Swedish would be obsolete and unremitting to modernization.