The first F-16 aircraft will land in Bulgaria on March 28. Until now, it was only known that the fighters would arrive at the end of March, but without the exact date being clear.
The date was announced by the Deputy Chief of Defense, Lt. Gen. Krasimir Kanev, and aviators said that they already knew about the event, BNR reported.
The official presentation of the machines is expected to take place in mid-April at the Third Air Base "Graf Ignatievo". A month ago, it became clear that the Ministry of Defense had announced 4 urgent contracts for construction and installation works there worth just over 234,300,000 leva excluding VAT.
And this after the government had allocated nearly 300 million leva for a complete reconstruction in previous years. In 2019 and 2022, our country concluded two contracts for a total of 16 F-16 fighters worth a total of about 5 billion leva.
The aircraft are coming to our country nearly two years after the initially announced delivery date. By the end of the year, our country should receive the first 8 fighters. This is the first purchase of new aircraft for combat aviation in about 35 years.