On April 12th, the official welcoming of the first F-16 aircraft to arrive in Bulgaria will take place.
The machine will arrive on its own, with refueling in the air, specified the Minister of Defense Atanas Zapryanov.
This is expected to happen around March 26-28.
Initially, the announcement of the aircraft's arrival came from the Deputy Chief of Defense, Lieutenant General Krasimir Kanev.
So, with a two-year delay, by the end of 2025. the first 8 machines will arrive in our country.
However, the saga of their purchase is almost 20 years old. The first steps were taken after our entry into NATO in 2004. At that time, the hope was that the squadron of up to 20 multi-purpose fighters with modern electronics and appropriate weapons would be in our country between 2006 and 2015.
In one of his first interviews on the subject, Rumen Radev said: "We need an aircraft for everything". And in 2005, our current president was the commander of the Graf Ignatievo air base, but also part of the working group for the selection of the aircraft.
Even then, Radev did not indicate his preferences for the Western platform, but warned that it would be time until the aircraft were fully integrated into the Air Force. That is why he recommended that the resource of the MIGs be maintained.