“In the past 2-3 years the Bulgarian armed forces have been developing at rates unprecedented in the past decades,” said President Rumen Radev and congratulated Defence Minister Krasimir Karakachanov on the progress made.

However, Rumen Radev who attended the presentation of the annual analysis of the state of the army, stressed that attention should be given to the ground forces and to more flight hours for pilots.

Minister Karakachanov stated that the project for the modernization of the armoured fighting vehicles for the ground forces will be left to the next government. He expressed the hope that with the overhauled Su-25 and MiG-29 fighter aircraft and the arrival of the 8 new F-16s the problem of the flight hours for fighter pilots will be solved.