site.btaCabinet to Consider Three Modernization Projects for Armed Forces

Cabinet to Consider Three Modernization Projects for Armed Forces

Sofia, March 15 (BTA) - Three modernization projects: one for the procurement of a new type of multirole fighter aircraft for the Bulgarian Air Force, another one for badly needed new armoured combat vehicles for the Land Forces, and a third one for two patrol craft for the Navy, will go before the Council of Ministers in the next couple of days, Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev said here on Tuesday, answering a reporter's question.

Approached by journalists, Nenchev confirmed that the public procurement for the supply of six Sand Cat armoured vehicles is under a question mark.

The Land Forces Commander, Major General Andrei Botsev, specified that the three projects have been approved by the Council on Defence and will have to be considered by Parliament, too, because they cost over 100 million leva. Botsev said that the Land Forces project is for some 250 armoured combat vehicles and auxiliary vehicles for three EU Battlegroups. The project is to be implemented within six or seven years. "We will insist that the armoured vehicles themselves be manufactured jointly with Bulgarian companies, as well as that as many as possible Bulgarian companies share in the entire equipment of the vehicles," the General pointed out. The estimated cost approximates 1,000 million leva, but Botsev specified that, if manufactured jointly, the vehicles come cheaper.

Asked about a cancelled procurement of parachutes, Nenchev said that reactivating the delivery is out of the question. He will do what is possible for the termination of the procedure. By the Minister's orders, checks have been conducted and findings arrived at. On Monday, Nenchev talked to the Director of the Defence Ministry's Defence Acquisition Directorate General, Venislav Tsanov, and urged him to take an unpaid leave. The idea is to keep Tsanov away from his workplace so that he would not obstruct the checks in any way and dispel all doubts that they will be conducted within the law, without undue influence on the inspectors. The Minister has asked the Inspectorate to check this project, he will be seeing the President of the Bulgarian National Audit Office later in the day and will request a comprehensive audit of this an all other procurements in recent years.

Two years ago, the Defence Ministry concluded a framework agreement with the Bulgarian-German consortium Paraplex-Bruggemann for the delivery of parachutes for the Special Forces. The chutes proved non-compliant with the specifications and the agreement was terminated, but shortly after that the Ministry contracted the supply of part of this same equipment, presumably by Tsanov's single-handed decision. When tested by the commandos, these parachutes showed a number of defects.

Nenchev expects Austria to send all-terrain vehicles, buses, ambulances and other border protection equipment that the Alpine Republic decided to donate to Bulgaria after a visit by its defence and interior ministers here on March 12.