Bulgarien kauft SOF-Fahrzeuge
Verfasst: Mo 4. Jan 2021, 04:41
https://www.mod.bg/en/index.php08.12.2020
The Minister of Defence Krasimir Karakachanov: "We enforce the capabilities of the Special Forces and support the Bulgarian economy"
“By signing this agreement, we take another beneficial step towards enhancing the capabilities of our Armed Forces. We provide the Special Forces with an opportunity to receive new equipment by means of which, while fulfilling their constitutional obligations, they will be much more efficient and useful in protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Bulgaria, and in performing their other missions,” said the Minister of Defense Krasimir Karakachanov after signing the contract with the Bulgarian company Samel-90 AD on the acquisition of combat vehicles for the Special Operations Forces today, 8 December 2020, at the Ministry of Defense.
"This is a patriotic endeavor. We not only increase the capabilities of our Special Forces, we support the Bulgarian economy on the money of the Bulgarian taxpayers, so that it does not leak somewhere abroad, and Bulgaria will not be perceived as a colonial state obliged to only buy from foreign countries, " emphasized Minister Krasimir Karakachanov.
“Nearly four years ago, the present political and military leadership had set the ambitious goal for itself to modernize a great part of the Bulgarian armed forces, or at least to start an irreversible process of modernization and rearmament. From the very beginning, our philosophy and cause was to integrate the Bulgarian industry in this undertaking. The normal logic and philosophy is to develop capabilities in Bulgaria. This step provides us with a much more cost-effective cycle of repair and maintenance of the equipment we acquire," added Minister Karakachanov.
He admitted that in the beginning he was skeptical as to the extent to which a Bulgarian company could produce such a complex product. "Now I am an optimist not only with respect to the Special Forces, but also regarding the prospects of the Special Forces in the Navy, and of the Land Forces. I hope that this agreement will be mutually beneficial not only for the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria, but also for the Bulgarian industry. The agreement will provide the industry with the opportunity to build up confidence that it is able to fulfill tasks which so far were believed to be achievable only by foreign companies," the Minister of Defence said.
Minister Krasimir Karakachanov expressed his hope that the future defence ministers would continue this a policy in order to build capabilities and obtain benefits for the Bulgarian society through much more reasonable means.
"This is a historic moment for the Special Operations Forces," said Major General Yavor Mateev, Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. "For the first time in our history, we sign a contract of this type, having such a scale and future significance for the operational capabilities of the Special Forces as well as for fulfilling our principal responsibilities under the national counter-terrorism plan," emphasized Major General Yavor Mateev.
According to him, the agreement is extremely important, having been signed after much effort by all parties, and in the framework of the negotiation process the best possible conditions were achieved. He also presented some of the key points of the negotiation process: "The decision of the Council of Ministers dated 18 November 2020 was of a “fundamental interest "and enabled the Ministry of Defense to negotiate the terms directly. A working group appointed by the Minister of Defence which I headed, managed to significantly increase the number of the combat vehicles compared to what we had as preliminary parameters. I would like to thank the company "Samel” for their professionalism. We were not only flexible, we literally squeezed all possible options within the budget to achieve the best for us, and the company made significant concessions and used its reserves (based on the fact that for the first time they actually fulfill a similar contract with the Bulgarian army) ", General Mateev pointed out.
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The contract for acquisition of combat vehicles for the Special Operations Forces, implementing the investment project aimed at increasing the mobility and personnel protection was signed by the Minister of Defence Krasimir Karakachanov and the Executive Director of Samel-90 Petar Georgiev, in compliance with all anti-epidemic measures today, 8 December 2020 at the Ministry of Defense. The Chief of Defense Admiral Emil Eftimov, the Deputy Chiefs of Defence Lieutenant General Dimitar Iliev and Lieutenant General Tsanko Stoykov, the Deputy Ministers of Defense Atanas Zapryanov and Anatoliy Velichkov, the Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command Major General Yavor Mateev and other high standing officials attended the event.
The subject of the contract is the acquisition of 98 combat vehicles of 10 types tasked to serve different purposes, and its value amounts to BGN 49,998,000. The implementation period shall not be longer than 3 years. The warranty period is 5 years, during which all maintenance and replacement of consumables is covered by the company.
It was also agreed to build and equip a technical repair activities center which will be staffed by increasing the personnel of the logistics battalion in the Special Operations Forces. The technical center will be situated in Plovdiv where the prevailing part of the Special Forces formations are deployed. The Center will be one hundred percent equipped by the company which will provide equipment, technical devices and machinery to ensure the capacity required to perform all minor repairs.
The first combat vehicles are due to arrive in the middle of the next year, 2021.
The project "Increasing the mobility and personnel protection of the Special Operations Forces" was implemented under the Ordinance on the criteria and procedures for establishing availability of basic interests in the cases under Art. 13, para. 1, item 13, letters “a”, “e” and “g” and Art. 149, para. 1, item 2 of the Public Procurement Act. Through the implementation of this project, the Special Operations Forces of the Bulgarian Army will acquire ten types of off-road combat and specialized vehicles with varying degrees of protection tasked to ensure the personnel mobility while performing the full range of missions and counter-terrorism tasks. The combat vehicles also have automatically controlled weapons.