Washington: Former Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of the ruling GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) party Boyko Borisov has alleged that the first US-made F-16 fighter jet delivered to Bulgaria under a defense contract is non-operational, Bulgarian National Television reported on Wednesday.
Borisov made the remarks while criticizing Bulgarian President Rumen Radev’s actions during the European People’s Party congress in Valencia, Spain.
“He [Radev] quietly whispered to accompanying journalists that this new F-16 is broken and can’t fly … The air force commander and Radev’s close friend [Nikolay Rusev] should be fired immediately. How could we receive a broken aircraft for $100 million?” the former prime minister said.
In response, President Radev urged Borisov to influence the government to allocate more funds for F-16 maintenance, reminding that the purchase agreement was signed during Borisov’s own administration in 2019.
In July 2019, the Bulgarian government signed a $1.26 billion contract to purchase eight F-16 Block 70 fighter jets from the United States. The original delivery schedule indicated that Bulgaria would receive the first jet by mid-2023. However, the timeline was delayed to 2025 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, Bulgaria also signed a contract for an additional eight F-16 jets.
