Bulgaria has signed a €9.5 million contract with Poland’s Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze to overhaul six MiG-29 jet engines, the defense ministry in Sofia said on Friday, according to Reuters and News.ro.

The inspection will be carried out “to ensure the airworthiness of the MiG-29 aircraft before obtaining the operational capability to carry out combat duty with the new F-16 Block 70 combat platform,” the ministry said in a statement.

The contract was signed on Friday as a result of an open auction, and its total value is 9.552 million euros, the ministry said.

The contract stipulates that the repair period for each engine will not exceed nine months from the date of delivery.

Last fall, Bulgaria’s parliament approved a new purchase of F-16s that will practically double the country’s future military air fleet, a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sofia hopes to receive its first F-16 aircraft in 2025

This additional military spending of 1.35 billion euros until 2031, which will be paid in installments, is in addition to a similar order for the first eight F-16s, which was placed in 2019 and represented the largest military modernization contract since the end of communism for the poorest country in the European Union, which was traditionally close to Moscow.

According to the government, Bulgaria, a NATO member since 2004, currently has a fleet of Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets, whose fleet is obsolete and maintenance will become impossible after 2023.

With the production line experiencing delays, Sofia hopes to receive its first F-16 aircraft in 2025, and in the meantime wants to fill the gap with used French or Swedish aircraft.

Bulgaria currently relies on NATO air control missions to ensure airspace security.

As for Poland, it transferred its MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine, equipping the country’s air force with Western aircraft, in particular the F-35.