Bulgarian Govt Asks Parl to Approve Updated Project for Patrol Ships Acquisition
Bulgaria's parliament said on Wednesday it has asked parliament to approve an updated project for acquisition of two patrol ships, which envisages increasing the estimated cost of the purchase to 984 million levs ($584.2 million/503.1 million euro).The initially announced cost of the project for acquisition of two multi-functional modular patrol ships for the needs of Bulgarian Navy was 820 million levs. The additional 164 million levs will be steered towards the country's 2025 and 2026 budgets, the government said in a statement following its weekly meeting. The purpose of the project is to replace part of the Russian-made patrol vessels of Bulgarian Navy which cannot be modernised, according to the statement. The project also envisages carrying out all necessary training, supply of spare parts, as well as integrated logistics support for a period of three years. In 2017, Bulgaria launched a tender for construction of two multi-functional modular patrol ships.