Bulgaria receives virtual reality equipment, linked to training for F-16s
Bulgaria’s Defence Ministry inaugurated on November 14 virtual reality equipment linked to training for the US-made Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 fighter jets it is scheduled to begin receiving in 2025.
The event included ceremonial receipt of two new Cabri helicopters.
Bulgaria is scheduled to receive eight of the 16 F-16s it is acquiring next year, but the Graf Ignatievo air base where they are to be based is not yet ready.
Caretaker Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov said that the first two would arrive in Bulgaria at the end of March or beginning of April 2025.
The next would follow in the second quarter of 2025 and by the end of next year, a total of eight would have arrived, Zapryanov said.
“We must be ready to start training people for the F-16,” he said.
“All the pilots that are scheduled have been sent for training. Some didn’t make it and came back, their training continues. We already have a pilot trained and an instructor. I hope we will have enough pilots when the first eight aircraft come.”
The contracts for the acquisition of the F-16 provide for training of 32 pilots, but so far there is not much official information on how the process is moving. It is public knowledge that of 10 sent to be trained, three were sent back.
Zapryanov said that it was extremely important that the infrastructure would be ready.
The F-16s could not “sit on the ground,” he said.
“We need to immediately start combat training, training the pilots. If the pilots don’t fly for a certain time, we will have to send them back for retraining.That’s why we are also rushing the infrastructure, this is a big challenge.”
He described the new acquisitions as “a sign that the F-16 Block 70 supply contract is being successfully implemented”.
Zapryanov said that the first Bulgarian F-16 aircraft is already undergoing test flights, and the second aircraft would be completed very soon.
The ambition of the state leadership is to have aircraft in operational readiness, which will be technically supported in Bulgaria under the industrial cooperation projects that Bulgaria’s Avionams company must undertake, he said.
(Photos: Defence Ministry)
