Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15

"We have problems with the maintenance of the MiG-29 fighter jets. We will rely on the MiG-29s until such time as air control duty can be taken over by the F-16s." This was stated by the Minister of Defense Todor Tagarev during his hearing in the Defense Committee of the National Assembly.

President Rumen Radev and Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov differed slightly in their explanations of whether Sofia offered the Bulgarian MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine.

Bulgaria received today from Poland the first aircraft engine for the MiG-29 fighters. This was announced by the Ministry of Defense on its Twitter account.

Today ???????? received the first aircraft engine for the MiG-29. ????????, thank you for your #allied #solidarity! #StrongerTogether @PremierRP_en @MorawieckiM @Poland_MOD @mblaszczak

The Ministry of Defense has issued a public order for the purchase of six refurbished engines for MiG-29 fighters. For the delivery of the engines, the military department has set aside BGN 26.4 million including VAT, according to a reference in the portal for public procurement.

"At the moment, no Ukrainian military equipment is being repaired on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria", said the Acting Minister of Defense Dimitar Stoyanov, who took part in the celebrations on the occasion of 145 years of the Shipka epic.

NATO says the upgrade will bring the base - once home to Soviet- and Chinese-made MiG fighter jets - up to alliance standards by renovating the runways, taxiways, and storage facilities.

Bulgaria's deputy defense minister confirmed on Tuesday that some military pilots will not take part in planned training this week.

"Some of the pilots from Graf Ignatievo air base will not perform training flights because of insecurity," said Deputy Defense Minister Atanas Zapryanov.

Russia plans to finalize the delivery of MiG-29 fighter jets to Serbia by the end of 2017.

Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Director Dmitry Shugaev said this on Thursday.

"The deliveries have not yet started. Work is being done to that end in line with the plan, agreed on with our partners," he told Sputnik during the Army 2017 Forum.

During the Korean War (1950 to 1953) America and her allies sided with South Korea, while Russia and China sided with North Korea. Among their many weapons, the US had the North American F-86 Sabre (also called the Sabrejet), while North Korea used the Russian MIG-15. Both sides were therefore curious to know about the other’s planes. Which is why, the Soviets decided to steal a Sabre.

The Albanian Defence Ministry has postponed an auction of old Russian and Chinese-made military planes following an unexpectedly large number of requests to take part in the bidding.

Earlier this month, the ministry put out a routine announcement of an auction on February 22 to sell 36 planes and four helicopters parked in military aerodromes.