Bulgaria 'Renouncing Its Air Force,' RIA Novosti Says

Russian agency RIA Novosti has published a piece claiming that Bulgaria is about to renounce its own Air Force and "give its air[space] to NATO."

Bulgaria is dashing its hopes to develop a national security concept, replacing it with the principle: "Who doesn't fly never falls down," reads the text [RU], which originally appeared on RIA Radio and is titled It Was Only a MiG. But It Also Flew Away. (In Russian, apart from a type of fighter aircraft, "mig" also means "a moment".)

It comes after Sofia announced earlier this week it was preparing legal amendments that would allow joint air-policing missions over Bulgaria's airspace conducted by national and NATO jets. This means Bulgaria will have limited capacity to perform its own air-policing duties while repair works are being carried out, but does not suggest Bulgaria will stop having flight-worthy aircraft in the next few years to come.

Six Bulgarian Air Force MiG-29 fighter jets will have their engines overhauled in Poland, according to an intergovernmental letter of intent signed in Sofia in late August. Bulgaria needs to have at least one fighter squadron of 12 aircraft in order to maintain high level of combat readiness as a NATO member state. Currently, there are four flight-worthy MiG-29s with enough flying capacity in the Bulgarian Air Force. A move to acquire new multi-role fighters has been pending for years, with some officials calling for it to be triggered immediately but with the Prime Minister pointing to budget shortfalls.

RIA Novosti describes the legal amendments as Bulgaria's "second blunder", the first one having been a move to deny overflight in September to Syria-bound Russian aircraft which Moscow says were delivering humanitarian aid.

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