{"id":4849,"date":"2019-06-04T10:26:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T15:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=4849"},"modified":"2019-06-04T10:26:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T15:26:50","slug":"bulgaria-sees-f-16-jet-deal-with-u-s-at-1-2-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=4849","title":{"rendered":"Bulgaria Sees F-16 Jet Deal With U.S. at $1.2 Billion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Defence Minister says $1.2 bln is a reasonable price<\/li><li>Final talks to start once Bulgaria gets draft contract<\/li><li>Cost will be based on final Bulgarian requirements-U.S. Embassy (Adds defence minister comment, U.S. embassy to Sofia)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>SOFIA, June 4 (Reuters) &#8211; NATO member Bulgaria expects the United States to offer to sell it eight new F-16 fighter jets for its air force at a discounted price of $1.2 billion, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. State Department approved the possible sale of eight F-16 aircraft and related equipment at an estimated cost of $1.67 billion, a Pentagon agency said on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bulgaria, which is also a member of the European Union, is looking to replace its ageing Soviet-made MiG-29s and improve compliance with NATO standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A deal for Lockheed Martin&#8217;s F-16 Block 70 would be the Balkan country&#8217;s biggest military procurement since the fall of Communist rule some 30 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defence ministry said the U.S. approval outlined the upper threshold of the cost and it expected a draft contract from Washington within two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There is a two-week timeline in which the U.S. government will present to Bulgaria a draft Letter of Offer and Acceptance in which the expected price for the eight jets with a package of necessary related equipment will be within $1.2 billion,&#8221; the ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The expected price comes above the initial estimate for the deal at 1.8 billion levs ($1 billion) but the Bulgarian parliament has given the defence ministry a green light to go over that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Defence Minister Krasimir Karakachanov said that the deviation from the initial budget should not be big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;About 2 billion levs ($1.2 billion) is the upper threshold of a reasonable price,&#8221; he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. Embassy in Sofia said that the Departments of State and Defense allow for a margin in all notifications to the U.S. Congress and that the actual cost will be based on Bulgaria&#8217;s final requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Final talks on the deal will start once Sofia receives the draft contract. The cost&#8217;s reduction would most likely be achieved by scaling down some of the related equipment, local analysts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;At that stage\u2026the Bulgarian government may re-scope and re-define the requirements before arriving at the ultimate cost,&#8221; the embassy said in a statement. ($1 = 1.7397 leva)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova Editing by Keith Weir)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3900\" height=\"3375\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/planesintheair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/F-16.jpg?fit=640%2C554\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4850\" srcset=\"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/F-16.jpg 3900w, https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/F-16-300x260.jpg 300w, https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/F-16-768x665.jpg 768w, https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/F-16-1024x886.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3900px) 100vw, 3900px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NATO member Bulgaria expects the United States to offer to sell it eight new F-16 fighter jets for its air force at a discounted price of $1.2 billion, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4510,4813,89,1836,2203,4957,1397],"tags":[539,160,5014,430,447,1844,1635,5015,1180,1490,1184,1001,688,589,78,1100,5016,2029,893,412,2439,1288,2787,4489,3987,1634,101,1921,632,1013],"class_list":["post-4849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aerospace-news","category-airplane-news","category-aviation-news","category-defense-news","category-finance-news","category-global-politics","category-stock-news","tag-air","tag-aviation","tag-bulgaria","tag-contract","tag-deal","tag-defence","tag-department","tag-draft","tag-european","tag-f-16","tag-fighter","tag-force","tag-government","tag-jet","tag-lockheed","tag-martin","tag-mig-29","tag-minister","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-pentagon","tag-reuters","tag-sofia","tag-soviet","tag-standards","tag-state","tag-stock","tag-union","tag-us","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4851,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions\/4851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}