Poland to repair Bulgaria's MiG-29 aircraft

Poland would perform overhaul and modernization of Bulgaria's MiG-29 aircraft, based on two bilateral documents that Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev and his Polish counterpart Tomasz Siemoniak signed here on Friday.

The documents, including a bilateral agreement between the two governments and a letter of intent for defense cooperation, "lay the legal framework of the activities on the overhaul and modernization of the aircraft," the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said in a statement distributed at the signing ceremony.

"Through them, Poland and Bulgaria express their strong political will to expressly cooperate namely in the sphere of maintenance of MiG-29 aircraft," the statement said.

It was anticipated that by the middle of 2016, the engines and aggregates of three aircraft would be overhauled, and until the end of 2016 -- the engines and aggregates of three more aircraft, the statement added.

"Bulgaria chose Poland as a partner and friend for the repair of MiG-29, and we know very well that this decision is of great political significance," Siemoniak said in a brief statement after the signing ceremony.

"I am deeply convinced that we are doing a step that will have a historical importance," Nenchev echoed.

Bulgaria has been a NATO member since 2004, and according to the statement, the aviation of a NATO Member State needs to have at its disposal at least one combat squadron of 12 aircraft. "At present, the Bulgarian Air Force operates four MiG-29s -- fighters in working order, with remaining service life," the press list said.

After mid-2016, the Air Force might be left with only two operable aircraft in good working order and sufficient number of flight hours left, the statement said. To avoid this, Bulgaria needed to find a way to overhaul the engines of the MiG-29s, it said. Endit