Prof. Col. Dimitar NEDYALKOV
I happened to watch a lady with bright lips talking about the MiG-29. I haven't seen her at the start, and it was clear from her speech that she hadn't even bothered to read a little about the plane and the F-16, so that, based on a comparative analysis, she could at least deal with the terminology, and not just with the familiar epithets to register devotion to the popular trend.
After all, she is a woman and she is trying. I would have forgotten it if it weren't for the latest stream of functional illiteracy on the subject from MPs who were trying to explain to the former Air Force engineer and current Minister of Defense what an airplane is. I remembered a catchphrase by Todor Zhivkov, who told Shkumbata that everyone in this country is busy with what is none of their business. It is a precedent in the history of Bulgarian aviation for the rearmament of an incomplete squadron (since the 1960s, Bulgarian squadrons have been according to NATO standards and, like in Turkey and Greece, there are over 20 aircraft) to continue for less than 10 years.
Let me remind you, however, that this was a political choice and a way of negotiating. When, based on a developed methodology, the Bulgarian aviators chose the Swedish Gripen as their main combat aircraft, such a ridiculous stream of talk called them kopecks, Russophiles, Putinists. Putin nerds, Sweden nerds. But I can only assume that if politicians had not intervened, as they had stated, we would now have perhaps 20 gripens and several billion investments under an offset program in high-tech industries.
Of course, the political choice also makes sense, and although expensive, the F-16 Block 70 is a good enough weapon, but the delay is a fact. For comparison, the rearmament and entry into duty mode of the squadron in Ravnets with 22 MiG-29s took 2 years, and that was during the disintegrating USSR. What should be done now in the situation that has arisen? Let us recall that since 1916, Bulgarian aviators have been guarding their native skies without interruption with their own formations. The logical way, of course, is to maintain the available aircraft for combat duty, because this requires a minimum of funds, time and available trained personnel.
Let's explain to the parliamentary wise men that the Polish MiG-29s are actually German ones, which have been modernized to NATO standards. By the way, I know from German colleagues that they were offered to Bulgaria for 1 euro. This was around 2000. We kept quiet about it and these modernized 22 machines are taken by the Poles. Because they are simple. More or less the same thing happens with the repair of these aircraft. All political decisions, accompanied by similar tirades to the current ones, which I don't know why are not available in Poland.
People flew there until their logical replacement, as well as the Su-22. Here we are doing it with slogans similar to those after September 9, 1944, when we destroyed the "fascist" all-metal Me-109 fighters, replacing them with Yaks of mixed construction. The same political talk. One would say that they were selected from a single catalog. Another topic is that 16 F-ki are not enough for a squadron by the Union standard. The normal quantity, and only for carrying out combat duties, is no less than 24. This is the arithmetic, and from the 3rd department.
But apparently it is also difficult, regardless of the level of salaries in the Parliament. Still, some allowances must be created for the people's representatives, according to the required levels of intelligence and medical status. At least 10% of the requirements for young people, who are now on duty at the 3rd airbase and in the positions of our anti-aircraft missile divisions. Surely the Bulgarian Parliament would look different
The author is a military expert and historian, a lecturer at the Military Academy “Georgi S. Rakovski“. The text was published on Facebook