Bulgaria Pushes Forward With US Jet Purchase
By Martin Dimitrov
Bulgaria’s government has asked parliament for a mandate to negotiate with the US on buying F-16 jets – drawing complaints from rival bidder Sweden, and from Bulgaria’s own President.
The Bulgarian government has asked parliament for a mandate to negotiate with the United States on buying new fighter jets, Defence Minister Krasimir Karakachanov said on Wednesday after ministers met in Sofia.
It means that Bulgaria plans to move ahead with the purchase of
Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Block 70 Viper jets to replace its aging fleet of
Soviet-era Mig-29 planes.
The other two offers – for Swedish
SAAB Gripen fighters and second-hand Italian Eurofighter Typhoons – are
not longer being considered.
“We have an assurance from the
White House that the price [for the jets] will be lowered,” Karakachanov
said on Wednesday, adding that the other option was to restart the
bidding procedure and postpone signing a deal for a year-and-a-half.
The
decision follows a month of diplomatic pressure from Washington, and a
controversial report of the multidisciplinary expert commission on the
selection of new jets that had to consider three offers.
The
report, published on January 20, listed the US and Sweden as the main
contenders to sell Bulgaria fourth generation multi-purpose jet fighters
for an estimated 750 million euros.
But while it described the Gripen jets as best fitting the technical
and financial criteria set out by the political leadership, it
recommended the F-16s instead.
Karkachanov immediately endorsed
the US jets. The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, FMV, said on
December 22 that it had learned of the Bulgarian decision “with great
disappointment and concern”.
An FMV official, Joakim Wallin,
underlined that the criteria set out by the Bulgarian Defence Ministry
in the tender procedure gave the Gripen an advantage over the F-16s.
On
the eve of the Council of Minister’s ruling on January 9, the White
House issued a statement welcoming Bulgaria’s military modernisation and
underlining the capabilities of the US-made jet.
“We believe
that the F-16 Block 70 offers Bulgaria the best possible combination of
price, capability and interoperability with other NATO air forces. If
the F-16 Block 70 is selected by Bulgaria, it will serve Bulgaria’s air
force capably and reliably for decades to come,” it read.
The
statement was preceded by a number of US diplomatic pushes at the end of
2018, including a phone call on December 18 between the US Secretary of
State, Mike Pompeo, and Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov.
After
the telephone call, the US issued a press release underlining that “the
United States looks forward to completing final negotiations with the
Bulgarian government”.
The decision to move forward with the F-16
purchase pitted the government against Bulgaria’s President and former
air force commander, Rumen Radev.
On January 6, he complained that the tender had become “mired” in other issues.
“I
insisted on following the procedure and the financial framework, which
would have guaranteed an optimal decision, regardless of the type of
aircraft. The government did completely the opposite – it assigned the
winner against all the rules and even promised to pay a huge sum in
advance,” he lamented.