Bulgaria's Air Force spent this week at the center of an unusually candid public admission: the country's Soviet-era MiG-29s are running out of spare parts, the American F-16s meant to replace them are years behind schedule and Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov has sent letters to four different countries asking for help.
What actually happened
Speaking ahead of a parliamentary Defense Committee meeting, Stoyanov displayed a document showing that a request for MiG-29 spare parts has gone unanswered since 2021. "Nothing has been delivered since 2021," he said, framing the issue bluntly: without parts, pilots cannot maintain rhythmic training or combat readiness on the jets Bulgaria still relies on for NATO Air Policing. To fix the immediate problem, the Defense Ministry has sent inquiries to Poland and Hungary, the two remaining European operators or former operators of the MiG-29, not to buy new aircraft but to acquire used airframes it can cannibalize for engines and components. "We don't want to build a full squadron, to buy new MiG-29s," Stoyanov said. "We have enough aircraft, but for that we need spare parts."
In parallel, Sofia has written to the Pentagon and to Sweden asking about second-hand F-16s or JAS-39 Gripens, a hedge against the MiG-29 fleet altogether. Stoyanov was openly pessimistic about this route, noting that Bulgaria sent similar letters in 2022 and was turned down, and that the Pentagon's actual advice this time was the opposite of what Sofia wanted to hear: a letter recommending Bulgaria simply "maintain your MiG-29 aircraft."
