Bulgaria’s Defence Ministry wants to postpone next payment for F-16s
Bulgaria’s Ministry of Defence will request a postponement of 361 million euro from the payment of the installment for the second F-16s for 2026, Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov told the parliamentary portfolio committee on November 14, according to a report by Bulgarian National Radio.
“We will encounter difficulties in implementing the investment program for the modernization of the Bulgarian Army,” Zapryanov said.
“The reason is a significant shortage of capital expenditures under already concluded supply contracts in the amount of 210 million euro and we will take actions and measures to reduce them.”
According to the report of the defence committee from 2022, in 2026 Bulgaria must pay about 653 million euro.
This is the recalculated value of the $761 million contribution, to which Bulgaria agreed in 2022.
Even then, the distribution of payments was proposed by the US government, and the change is allowed “in accordance with the International Treaties Act,” the 2022 report says.
Zapryanov now says that “negotiations with the US will be held to reschedule the obligations under the contract for the second stage.”
He did not specify before the committee whether the final date for the last contribution – 2031 – would be met.
Zapryanov said that next year, expenses under the European loan for defence investments of up to 151 million euro are planned. This amount is again less than planned.
The first of the F-16s that Bulgaria is acquiring arrived in the country on April 2 2025, the second on June 8 and two new F-16 fighter jets arrived in Bulgaria on October 3.
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