site.btaUPDATED Amendment No. 2 to F-16 Block 70 Aircraft Agreement with US Ratified on First Reading

Bulgaria's Parliament on Friday passed on first reading a Government-proposed Act to Ratify Amendment No. 2 to Letter of Agreement (LOA) BU-D-SAB (F-16 Block 70 aircraft and associated support).

The vote was 134 in favour (64 from GERB-UDF, 40 from Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria, 24 from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and 6 from There Is Such a People) and 44 against (16 from BSP for Bulgaria and 28 from Vazrazhdane).

By the Letter of Agreement, signed on July 11, 2019, Bulgaria contracted the acquisition from Lockheed Martin Corp. of eight multi-role F-16 Block 70 aircraft and associated support, munitions, Sidewinder AIM 9X Block II Missiles and associated material and services at a price of USD 1.2 billion. The equipment is to be provided under the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme. LOA BU-D-SAB was ratified by the 44th National Assembly on July 26, 2019, and the ratifying law has been gazetted.

Amendment No. 2 to the international agreement updates the schedule for delivery of the aicraft, which is planned to start at the end of the first quarter of 2025 and to be completed until the end of 2025.

The first two jets were to be delivered in the middle of 2023 and the last two in the first quarter of 2024, but COVID-19 delayed the implementation of the project.

The purpose of the amendment is to optimize the deliveries on the part of the US and does not reduce or limit the requirements for the capabilities of the F-16 Block 70 weapons system as initially set by Bulgaria.  

In its report on the bill, the parliamentary Defence Committee said that the LOA has to be amended because of an adjustment of the timeframe for procuring the requisite components and/or products and for endorsing the related explanatory notes as a result of contracts awarded by the US Air Force to the relevant suppliers.

Since the amendment, just as the basic LOA, contains Controlled Unclassified Information which is not supposed to be made public, it may not be promulgated in the State Gazette, the parliamentary Defence Committee said in its report on the bill.

The amendment was signed by the then Minister of Defence Todor Tagarev in Ohio on January 31, 2024. 

Caretaker Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov told journalists on Tuesday that the whole batch of eight F-16 Block 70 jets will arrived until the end of 2025. Zapryanov specified that two F-16s will be delivered to Bulgaria by the US until the end of 2024 but will remain there to be used for pilot training. One more aircraft will be manufactured and all three are expected in Bulgaria until the end of the first quarter of 2025, Zapryanov added. Next, another three jets will arrived in the second quarter of 2025, and two more until the end of next year.

Socialists: Extra Payments for F-16s Will Ruin Budget

The Socialists reacted strongly to the revisions and recalled that back in 2019 they warned that the agreement is "shameful and demeaning" for Bulgaria. "Nearly USD 9 billion have been paid so far, and nobody knows what we got during these years: nothing," Borislav Gutsanov MP of BSP for Bulgaria said, addressing the legislature. "Isn't this national treason?" he asked. 

"Once in force, Amendment No. 2 to LOA BU-D-SAB will enable the optimization of the performance of the contract concluded for the delivery of F-16 Block 70 aircraft by the US without increasing the financial obligations of the Bulgarian State," the Council of Ministers argued in its reasoning to the ratifying bill.

Another Socialist MP, Rumen Gechev, criticized Zapryanov because the agreement did not provide for any damages. "Are you aware that, under European and Bulgarian legislation, we are entitled to recover interest for delayed deliveries and 70% of the amount due already constitutes punitive damages? This means that the contractor must deliver another five or six aircraft for free because of breach of contract. But this will not happen because you signed a contract without any rights. [...] And the amendments that are starting to be made in it are just the beginning of ruining our budget," Gechev argued.

Parliamentary Defence Committee Chair Hristo Gadzhev MP of GERB countered Gutsanov: "The price per aircraft is USD 62 million. There is no such thing as the billions you mention. All the rest, apart from that, is the armament, support and equipment."

Zapryanov was adamant that Bulgaria did not pay extra: "We are paying only for what we are getting. USD 996 million are our money, it is kept on our account and does not go to the US government."

The Defence Committee report specifies that the amendment will not increase the cost of the transaction.