SOFIA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian President Rumen Radev here on Monday said the country's armed forces and military industry needed modernization amid their serious technological backwardness.
"Bulgaria must overcome the definite lag in the process of modernization of its armed forces and the technological gap with our allies," said Radev, while addressing a conference on the role of Bulgaria in the common European defense.
"I can guarantee that at the moment we cannot significantly contribute to generating capabilities in the common European defense because we cannot communicate with the others," said Radev, who until August 2016 was commander of the Bulgarian Air Force.
As "the most elementary example," Radev pointed out that even the modern Bulgarian transport helicopters could not participate in a transport mission in Afghanistan because they did not have a secure voice communication capability.
Meanwhile, the state leadership faced the "huge problem" of how to allocate defense spending, said Radev, who is also the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces.
The armed forces needed to continue their combat training, but this meant that investment was needed in the repair of armament, which has not been maintained for decades, Radev said.
On the other hand, if Bulgaria profoundly invested in the repair of weapons, there would be no resources left for the acquisition of new armament that would actually provide compatibility and new capabilities, Radev said.
Another problem, he said, was that the Bulgarian military industry has seen significant growth in output and profit in recent years, but this growth was largely based on Soviet-era technology.
In the meantime, Bulgaria should strive to integrate its military research sector into future major European projects, Radev added.
Bulgaria, a NATO and EU member since 2004 and 2007 respectively, has been suffering from lack of sufficient funds for its armed forces and still heavily relies on Soviet-made weapons.
