First Two Engines for Repair of Bulgaria's MiG-29 Jets Expected to Arrive on Tuesday

The first two engines to be used in the repair of the Bulgarian MiG-29 fighter jets are expected to arrive from Poland on Tuesday.

Bulgaria and Poland signed an intergovernmental agreement on the repair of six of the country's fighter jets in October.

Poland will loan out two engines for temporary use until two of the Bulgarian engines are being repaired.

After that Poland will use the Bulgarian engines for the same amount of time as Bulgaria is going to use the Polish ones before returning them.

The repair of the six engines will cost slightly over BGN 12 M, with the maintenance to be carried out by the middle of next year.

An opportunity for additional negotiations on a complete logistical maintenance of the fighter jets is foreseen.

The agreement with Poland was signed despite the warnings of the Russian MiG company that it will take legal action against Warsaw as it did not possess licence to carry out the maintenance.

According to Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev, the repair would have been much more expensive if Bulgaria had continued its maintenance contract with Russia.

The country will also be exempt from VAT as both Bulgaria and Poland are member states of the EU.