PM: Two more F-16s to be delivered to Bulgaria ‘at any moment’
Two F-16 Block 70 aircraft are in Portugal and should arrive in Bulgaria any moment, Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov told Parliament during Question Time on October 3.
The first of the F-16s that Bulgaria is acquiring arrived in the country on April 2 2025 and the second on June 8.
Zhelyazkov told MPs that manufacturer Lockheed Martin’s commitment is to deliver the remaining four aircraft by the end of 2025.
“It is tentatively planned that the combat duty of the F-16 aircraft will begin in mid-2026. We have six trained pilots, and 15 are in the process of training,” he said.
By the end of 2025, in fulfillment of the 2019 contract, Bulgaria should receive a total of eight such aircraft.
The Bulgarian Air Force will have one F-16 Block 70 squadron by the end of 2027, when eight more aircraft are expected to be delivered under the second contract.
The Ministry of Defence is unable to provide specific dates or periods in which the remaining six F-16 Block 70 aircraft will land in Bulgaria, because planning flights from the United States is a complex and lengthy process, Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov said in early August.
A fuel leak was detected on a two-seater F-16D Block 70 aircraft from one of the internal fuel tank compartments, and a representative of Lockheed Martin will arrive by the end of September to fix the malfunction, Zapryanov said at the end of September.
