site.btaOctober 30, 2002: Bulgaria Completes Demolition of SS-23, Scud, FROG Missile Systems

On October 30, 2002, Bulgaria met the Parliament-set deadline for the destruction of its Soviet-made SS-23, Scud and FROG surface-to-surface missiles.

Starting in 1990, the United States exerted pressure on the former Warsaw Pact countries to eliminate their SS-23, Scud and FROG missiles. By contemporary standards, the 302-km range Scud and the 64-mile FROG were obsolete, however, the mobile and highly accurate SS-23, with a range exceeding 302 km, were regarded as a credible threat.

Bulgaria had 24 SS-23 Spider (9M714 Oka), 28 FROG-7 (9K52 Luna M) and 47 SS-1C Scud-B (9K72 Elbrus).

Between 1990 and 2001, Socialist prime ministers Andrey Lukanov and Zhan Videnov and their right-wing respective successors Filip Dimitrov and Ivan Kostov resisted all US offers to scrap Bulgaria's missile arsenal, seeing it as a powerful deterrence tool. Kostov, who headed the government from 1997 to 2001, consented to the decommissioning of the FROGs and Scuds but rejected the proposal to have the SS-23s destroyed, following the recommendations of military experts.

The Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha cabinet shifted this policy in December 2001, responding to a blunt warning from the US Embassy that a failure to destroy the missiles would block Bulgaria's bid to join NATO. On May 31, 2002, the two countries signed a memorandum under which the US agreed to fund the operation, with several million dollars. The Bulgarian Parliament ratified the document on the basis of an understanding that keeping the missiles was costly, unsafe, and incompatible with the country's new approach to national security. A US company called Controlled Demolition Inc. was contracted to carry out the demolition.

Between September 10 and September 26, 2002, the warheads of the SS-23 missile complexes were detonated, and between September 26 and September 30, the warheads of the FROG missiles were destroyed. On October 19, the last warheads from the SS-23, Scud, and FROG missile systems were destroyed at the Zmeyovo firing range near Stara Zagora (South Central Bulgaria).

Following is an original English-language news item of BTA's External Service of October 30, 2002, covering the decommissioning and destruction of the missile systems:

"133 SS-23 MISSILES-DESTRUCTION COMPLETED

Bulgarian Army Has No SS-23, Scud, FROG Missiles as of October 30

Sofia, October 30 (BTA) - The SS-23, Scud and FROG missile systems are non-existent in the Bulgarian army from October 30, the Defence Ministry said. This was the deadline for missile destruction set by Parliament in a special decision of December 2001.

Despite the difficulties and the pressure for time, the Defence Ministry took actions, with the help of the US State Department, as a result of which Bulgaria no longer has missile systems of the said types. The press release said this was a serious step to strengthening the international community's confidence in Bulgaria.

The process of warhead destruction ended as early as October 19. Mechanical components of the missile systems were destroyed. Work for the complete destruction of residual subcomponents is going on under the memorandum of understanding between the Bulgarian and US governments, the press release said.

The transparency and openness of the destruction of the SS-23, Scud and FROG missile systems formed a basis for effective dialogue between the institutions, the local government bodies and citizens' associations, and boosted confidence among them. This challenge proved the maturity of social relations, the growth of civil society in Bulgaria and the readiness of the institutions to engage in dialogue regarding all important sensitive issues."