Bulgarian air force

The Bulgarian cabinet approved on Wednesday the country's participation in negotiations for the purchase of new fighter jets.

This was announced by Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev after the government granted him mandate to head negotiations with Belgium, the Netherlands and Greece.

Bulgaria will kickstart an acquisition process for a new multipurpose combat aircraft by the end of next month, Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev has said.

The Defence Ministry will submit the respective proposal to the government by 30 June, BGNES news outlet quoted Nenchev as saying on Thursday following a meeting of the parliament's defence committee.

A Bulgarian-US military training "Thracian Eagle-2" starts Monday at the Graf Ignatievo airbase and will continue until end-June.

The training is a part of Operation Atlantic Resolve of the United States Air Force aimed at guaranteeing the security of NATO allies, according to the Bulgarian National Radio.

Bulgaria may be forced to revise its 2015 budget towards the end of the year to provide funding for a potential repair of some of its ageing Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets, Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev has said.

Bulgaria's prosecuting authority is launching an inspection in connection with an interview of Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev in which he states that he has been offered a bribe.

Bulgaria's armed forces must soon reduce their dependence of Russian equipment and maintenance or face the risk of ‘catastrophic consequences,' Velizar Shalamanov has told the BBC.

Bulgarian Air Force is participating in the NATO exercise Ramstein Guard-8 which takes place between September 22 - October 3 in the airspace of Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, the Defense Ministry in Sofia said in a statement.

The main objective of the exercise is to improve the preparation of forces and air defense tools of NATO member states during radio-frequency interference.

Bulgaria and Romania will begin a joint air policing exercise this month to practice measures against potential threat to strategic facilities from hijacked or suspicious aircraft.

A dozen US Air Force F-15s and some 180 personnel have been deployed at Bulgaria’s Graf Ignatievo Air Base to take part in a bilateral exercise with the Bulgarian Air Force.

The two-week training exercise codenamed Thracian Eagle 2014 comes at a time when US’ Eastern European partners and allies are concerned about rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Some 1200 tourists in Bulgaria's Black Sea resort of Albena have been evacuated from hotels located near the Balata Reserve due to the risk of flooding from the Batovska river.

No guests of the resort have been injured, Vesti.bg reports.