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At today’s meeting of the Bulgarian Government the defense minister Angelov received a mandate to conduct negotiations for a new fighter for the Air Force.
Answering to the media questions, including to those of the “Club WINGS” (“Клуб КРИЛЕ”) aviation magazine, the minister announced the decision of the Council of ministers, by which he was tasked to lead formal talks for acquisition of multi-purpose fighters for the Bulgarian Air Force. Minister Anyu Angelov plans to start negotiations with the defense ministers of several potential suppliers, as Germany, Italy, Israel, Portugal, Sweden and USA, that manufacture or possess such fighters. By 1st of March 2013 the minister has to submit a report on the results of the negotiations and a final decision will be taken on that base. In case that the fighters are ‘second hand’ the purchase will be done without a tender but with an intergovernmental agreement. However the minister did not exclude the possibility for acquisition of a new fighter. The Ministry of Defense is looking to purchase initially eight fighters at the price of $400 million. In that case the contract must be debated and approved by the Bulgarian Parliament.
The most speculated topic in the past several weeks in the Bulgarian media was the possible purchase of F-16 MLU fighters from Portugal. And most likely this might be also the choice of the Ministry of Defense.

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