VIDEO The Bulgarians are getting anti-ship missiles to drive the Russians out of the Black Sea. What is Romania doing?

Bulgaria perceives the Russian Black Sea Fleet as a direct threat. Consequently, it decided to buy missiles that would deter Russian ships from entering maritime areas where Bulgaria has commercial interests.

After closing its Bulgarian office in the summer of 2019 due to losing the race for the next type of fighter jet for the Bulgarian Air Force, Swedish defense giant Saab surprisingly and officially announced this week its “comeback” on the Bulgarian market.

Vice President for Central and Eastern Europe Krasimira Stoianova announced the corporation’s intention to compete in at least three “multi-million dollar” tenders for the modernization of the Bulgarian armed forces.

The Bulgarians are getting anti-ship missiles to drive the Russians out of the Black Sea. What is Romania doing?

These include retrofitting the military with new coastal anti-ship missile systems, acquiring long-range missile systems, and acquiring new man-portable anti-tank systems for the needs of special operations forces.

After the conclusion of the interstate contract with the US for the purchase of Stryker combat vehicles, two other major military contracts are currently on the agenda – for new three-coordinate radars and for advanced self-propelled artillery pieces.

According to sources in military circles, the most important reason for the Swedish corporation’s activation in Bulgaria is a potential opportunity opened by the situation in the Black Sea to sell its RBS-15 anti-ship missiles, writes Kapital.bg

How do we get the Russians off our coast?

The reason for the Bulgarian military’s interest in this anti-ship missile is last summer’s attempted Russian naval blockade of the Bulgarian exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea.

Then Putin’s admirals launched endless “live ammunition exercises” in the immediate vicinity of Bulgarian waters to try to block Ukraine’s commercial shipping.

Thus, in September, Bulgaria’s political leadership began to consider various options to issue an unequivocal warning and expel the Russians from our maritime economic zone.

“At the moment we don’t see a direct threat to Bulgarian ports, but force is answered with force. That’s why we started buying missiles for the coast guard, so that no one dares to approach our cities from the Sea Black,” wrote Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov at the time.

The prime minister instructed the army to force the purchase of coastal missile complexes, and the head of defense, Admiral Emil Evtimov, and the leadership of the navy quickly proposed the option of buying Swedish-German RBS-15 missiles.

Such a rocket costs between $600,000 and $1,000,000.

What is Romania doing?

So far, we have not sensed an imminent Russian danger in the Black Sea. Romania is considering the purchase of missiles of a different type, caliber and for other missions.

Thus, the Romtehnica National Company, coordinated by MapN and acting as an interface between the Romanian defense industry and external partners, concluded a 4-year framework agreement for the purchase of anti-tank missiles.

The total value of the purchase amounts to over 358 million lei plus VAT, that is, more than 426 million lei including tax.

The framework agreement for the supply of anti-tank missiles was signed with the company Eurospike GmbH, registered in Germany.

Read also: Romania invests hundreds of millions of lei for the purchase of German-Israeli anti-tank missiles

Newsweek wrote that the Ministry of National Defense (MApN) will purchase 200 missiles for the PATRIOT systems, the cost being over one billion euros, the approach being part of an allied contract, informs a press release from the MApN.

Within this consolidated multinational acquisition, which uses the principles of the European Air Defense Initiative ESSI (European Sky Shield Initiative), Romania will acquire 200 PAC-2 GEM-T missiles.

MApN requested and obtained Parliament’s approval for participating in this joint procurement program, the estimated total cost for the entire package of 200 missiles intended to complete the combat stocks of the Romanian Army being 1.09 billion euros, excluding VAT, in which they are including spare parts, related services and FMS costs.

Read also: Romania is arming itself with Patriot missiles that reach targets at 160 km. The cost is €1.09 billion