site.btaParliament Adopts Report on State of Defence and Armed Forces in 2018

May 15 (BTA) - The National Assembly Wednesday adopted a
Report on the State of Defence and the Armed Forces of the
Republic of Bulgaria in 2018, elaborated by the parliamentary
Defence Committee.

The report reads that the defence capabilities' state allows the
 Bulgarian Armed Forces to carry out their tasks within the
missions stemming from constitutional obligations, but with
certain limitations related to the resource available, the state
 of the armament and military equipment, and the time limits for
 implementing modernization projects. The shortage of service
members remains high, but the efforts for finding and keeping
well-prepared personnel are beginning to yield results.
The increase of service members' salaries and the expected next
pay raise have a positive effect on their motivation.

Last year, there were 301 military exercises, which is by 4 per
cent more than in 2017. To support international peace and
security, Bulgarian military formations and service members took
 part in 11 missions and operations abroad with a total of 1,420
 persons, which is a 47 per cent increase from a year earlier.
To contribute to national security in times of peace, Bulgarian
formations participated in 103 operations for assisting the
population during disasters with around 728 service members and
229 units of machinery. A total of 85 operations for
neutralizing ammunition were conducted.

In 2018, defence expenditure amounted to 1,592,880,000 leva, or
1.48 per cent of GDP, with actual spendings' share of GDP
increasing by 0.2 per cent compared to 2017. This figure is
close to but not reaching the one set for 2018 in the National
Plan for increase of defence expenditure to 2 per cent of GDP by
 2024, as a result of the non-spending of the central government
 budget's resources allocated for the three main modernization
projects (for the acquisition of fighter aircraft for the Air
Force, multi-role patrol ships for the Navy, and armoured
vehicles for the Land Forces). A large amount of these resources
 were reallocated to repairs and restoration of armament and
military equipment, the report reads.

RY/DS