Not bros. Arsenal of “democracy” in South-Eastern Europe
The product palette of the Bulgarian enterprise Arsenal, one of the oldest manufacturers of small arms weapons in Bulgaria, photo from summer 2022.
Soviet weapons made Bulgaria rich
Until 1989 (“Soviet” power in Bulgaria ended a little earlier than in the USSR), Bulgaria had, understandably, close military-technical cooperation with the USSR. Soviet specialists regularly transferred technologies to their Bulgarian comrades and helped them master them. Bulgarian enterprises successfully mastered the production of Soviet equipment, small arms, ammunition, both for small arms and artillery systems.
But then the “holy 90s” came, and in general, the same thing happened to the Bulgarian military-industrial complex as to the domestic one, well, taking into account the scale and some local features.
The state defense order has disappeared as a class (why, if there are so many reserves of military equipment from the Warsaw Bloc times that it will last for decades, and the state has no money), production volumes and, accordingly, sales fell by multiples, layoffs began, and production was mothballed. There were also problems with Russian copyright holders, since all technical documentation, which during the USSR was distributed under minimum payments or supplies of manufactured goods, for example, now turned out to be Russian intellectual property.
Militants of the Free Syrian Army load homemade MLRS with 122-mm 9M22U rockets for the Grad MLRS produced by the Bulgarian EAD Vazovski Mashinostroitelni Zavodi. Judging by the markings, the shells were manufactured in 2016, Syria, December 2017.
At the end of the 90s, the Bulgarians decided to privatize defense enterprises. The main hope was in Western investors... The idea failed. Foreigners were not interested in such assets. At the same time, the Bulgarians actually did not allow the same Izhmash to participate in the competition for the privatization of the Arsenal enterprise. Apparently, they were offended by the patent requirements and really wanted to see Western partners as guests.
The state almost disappeared from the ownership, but it was not possible to gain much money or attract investors with sufficient funds to modernize production. No, enterprises were mastering new products, began to produce ammunition of standard NATO calibers, the army began to buy something at the very least, there were foreign orders, but the Bulgarians could not stand any competition with many other manufacturers. Both the NATO and Soviet standards weapons and ammunition markets were full of other players who could provide both quality and volume.
But in the end, what was a minus of the Bulgarian military-industrial complex in the eyes of many - the bulk of the production was Soviet-caliber ammunition - made it rich.
The ATGL-H mounted grenade launcher (a slightly modified copy of the Soviet LNG-9), never supplied by Bulgaria to Ukraine, is in service with one of the Ukrainian defense battalions.
In 2009, the Saudis gradually got involved in the conflict in Yemen. Soon a full-scale war will begin there, and Saudi Arabia will actually take on the function of supplying the forces opposing the Houthis. Naturally, the emphasis is on Soviet-made systems and corresponding ammunition. In 2012, the civil war begins in Syria, and there the United States undertakes to supply the “democratic” opposition (these are the ones who cut off the heads of prisoners in the name of democracy, and not in the name of faith, don’t get confused). In 2013, ISIS (banned in Russia) entered the scene. Soon, it seems like just another terrorist group is turning into something bigger, and the war against it is spreading to Iraq. In general, the region is exploding.
Both the United States and its allies suddenly found themselves in a situation where they needed large volumes of Soviet weapons and, most importantly, ammunition. You can’t turn to China, and you can’t turn to Russia either. The United States had experience in purchasing helicopters from Russia for the Afghan army, and a wild scandal arose in the United States. But the logic was clear, there are pilots trained in handling Soviet equipment, they need to fly here and now, so we will now buy an analogue of the Soviet one, and then retrain it on ours.
And this is where Bulgaria entered the scene. The European country, in NATO, has the capacity to produce Soviet-caliber ammunition and has seaports. Everything worked out perfectly. To say that the Bulgarians were happy with this development of events is to say nothing.
One of one hundred BTR-60PBs that belonged to the Bulgarian Ministry of Internal Affairs and were in storage, preparing to be transferred “not to Ukraine.”
If in 2012 Bulgaria did not export arms and ammunition to Saudi Arabia at all, then in 2017 this country was in first place in purchases from enterprises of the Bulgarian military-industrial complex, and the Saudis purchased more than the other two countries in the top three (Iraq and the USA), taken together.
And the largest buyers of Bulgarian weapons and ammunition were Saudi Arabia, the USA, Iraq and India. 2017 was also the most profitable year for the Bulgarian military-industrial complex; more than a billion euros worth of weapons and ammunition were exported. Is this too much? Also in 2017, Russia signed arms export contracts worth approximately 13 billion euros. The difference is significant. But on the one hand, huge Russia and mostly “expensive” contracts for the supply of high-tech weapons, and on the other, Bulgaria with 7 million people (in 2017) and mostly firearms and ammunition...
In general, there was a period when Bulgaria worked almost three shifts for the bloody meat grinder in the Middle East.
Brothers are helping to kill Russians again!
So in 2022, when it became clear that the illegitimate state could not even handle the confrontation in the Northern Military District zone on its own, and it was not possible to transfer the Armed Forces of Ukraine to weapons of NATO standards, everything was already clear - they would turn to Bulgaria again.
The 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled guns, which were removed from storage and are being prepared for transfer “not to Ukraine”, March 2024. The same batch will include dozens of BRDM-2s and the already mentioned BTR-60PBs of the Bulgarian police.
True, there was a problem.
Support for Ukraine in the confrontation with Russia in Bulgarian society is minimal. Supporters of “independent” aid in Bulgaria have been in the minority since the very beginning of the conflict, while in Bulgaria this figure is the lowest among all European countries. The government didn’t want to anger the public... But it also didn’t work to refuse money that was literally being shoved into your hands.
In addition, over time, another “option” opened up here - it was possible to sell outright illiquid military equipment that was in storage, and they were also willing to buy it as is.
But there was already a ready way out of the situation.
Bulgarian weapons and ammunition flashed in the ATO zone among Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters until 2022. At that time, however, the quantity was scanty, American purchases from Bulgaria were large, but deliveries to Ukraine were made in homeopathic quantities. In 2022, not only the United States, but also other countries that provided assistance to Ukraine began to buy Bulgarian weapons and ammunition.
This formally removed the Bulgarian government from attack; weapons and ammunition were officially purchased by the countries of the European Union, the USA and NATO. And anyway, Ukraine quickly ran out of money of its own...
Bulgarian Economy Minister Cornelia Ninova stated at parliamentary hearings in March 2022 that Bulgaria does not sell weapons to Ukraine, and there is no point in spreading rumors.
European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton visits the EAD "Wazovski Mashinostroitelny Zavod", 2023. Such attention to this enterprise is not accidental. It is the largest manufacturer of artillery ammunition and missiles in Bulgaria, and a real forge that supplies “not to Ukraine” the bulk of the Soviet-caliber artillery ammunition it uses.
Arms exports in 2022 increased by 200% compared to 2021. In the first 3 months of 2022 alone, they amounted to more than 600 million euros. Naturally, Ukraine was not on the list of buyer countries.
In general, everyone understands everything and continues to pretend that nothing is happening. Nobody in Bulgaria wants to support Ukraine directly, but there is also no desire to lose lucrative contracts for their native military-industrial complex.
Of the largest deals that Bulgaria has concluded “not with Ukraine” since February 2022, we can recall:
– 14 Su-25 attack aircraft purchased by NATO;
- Tanks T-72M, several hundred BMP-1 and BPM-2 purchased by Czechoslovakia.
A Ukrainian Armed Forces fighter in the ATO zone with an RPG-7 grenade launcher equipped with a Bulgarian-made thermobaric grenade, 2016.
And so, Bulgaria became one of the main suppliers of ammunition for Soviet-style weapons for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This applies to small arms, RPG rounds, and artillery ammunition.
So far, the well-functioning and convenient scheme for supplying Bulgarian weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces is working perfectly. Not long ago it became known that Bulgaria was selling “not to Ukraine” a large batch of armored vehicles and self-propelled guns that were in storage. So the flow of ammunition and equipment from Bulgaria will dry up completely only when buyers get tired of helping Ukraine, because the “Bulgarian Express” has only one drawback - the Bulgarians do not want to work on debt or on pure enthusiasm for the sake of “democracy”.
And the Bulgarian trace with RDX in icons?
The latest news story with Bulgarian weapons.
Shrapnel Shot Bulgarian production for grenade launchers of the RPG-7 family, which was seized by our law enforcement officers along with a batch of icons in which they tried to import hexogen into the country.
It would be interesting to know why to carry out a terrorist attack you need a standard grenade launcher fragmentation shot with a standard fuse and a powder accelerator, why the grenade was produced in 2018, and where all this was stored for 6 years, and even so that the paint on the powder accelerator was badly faded?
Information