In the spring of 2015 the Bulgarian media launched the idea that the national fighting aircraft could start protecting Macedonia’s airspace, provided that Skopje agreed with such proposal and Bulgaria bought new multi-purpose fighter jets. However, this week the media launched a new idea that the Bulgarian airspace could be protected by the national aircraft together with the military aviation of other NATO country. Bulgaria’s Premier Boyko Borissov and President Rossen Plevneliev quickly denied such possibility. In Premier Borissov’s view, Bulgaria can not afford to buy new fighter jets and the country can continue protecting its air space when it repairs its Russian jet-fighters MIG-29.

President Plevneliev also contends that the current Russian jets have to be repaired and that Bulgaria has to protect its air-space without the help of other NATO member states, but unlike Premier Borisov, he believes that this country must buy new fighter-jets as well. Bulgaria’s Minister of Defense Nikolay Nenchev said that Bulgaria should guard its air-space on its own. Minister Nenchev also expects that Bulgaria would sign an agreement with Poland, which will later repair the Russian fighter-jets. According to Russia, however, Poland does not have the necessary license to do such repair works. Bulgaria has to choose between many options, but it is still far from reaching a solution on this important issue. It is still trying to solve the problem regarding the capacity of its military aircraft in a moment when Russian fighter jets are making frequent flights close to Bulgaria’s air space. Moreover, according to one of Bulgaria’s engagements towards NATO, the country’s military aviation has to make scheduled flights and protect its airspace from possible threats. Bulgaria has to solve this pressing problem quickly, because it can rely on its Russian MIG-29 jets only until mid 2016. However, this country does not have the necessary financial resource to buy new aircraft until then and does not agree with the idea to pay other countries to protect its airspace. The situation seems quite complicated and is not likely to be solved with standard decisions. Apparently, Bulgaria will have to rely on foreign help to solve this problem.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov