Bulgarian Army Squanders Taxpayers' Money - Report

[poiuytrewq0987]

Bulgaria maintains one of the largest and most costly for the taxpayers' armies in the EU, according to a report of the Council of Ministers about the state of the Army in 2009.

The report, published Wednesday, further shows that the amount per serviceman is, however, several times lower than in other countries, members of the European Union, and the army shows a steady trend of being behind in technology and modern equipment.

Bulgaria is second in the EU by the number of servicemen per capita (45 from every 10 000), only behind Greece (119 per 10 000). In comparison, Romania has 35 servicemen per 10 000 people while Austria has 12.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=115236

[Kanasyuvigi]

How many EU countries border a 70-million muslim country?
Let me guess - only Bulgaria and Greece.
So what I say is that our army is too small, badly armed and most important - the ordinary Bulgarian man has no fighting spirit at all.
I can't believe that we're the same country which mobilised 600 000 soldiers in the Balkan wars and the WWI, just a century ago

[poiuytrewq0987]

How many EU countries border a 70-million muslim country?
Let me guess - only Bulgaria and Greece.
So what I say is that our army is too small, badly armed and most important - the ordinary Bulgarian man has no fighting spirit at all.
I can't believe that we're the same country which mobilised 600 000 soldiers in the Balkan wars and the WWI, just a century ago

Pozdravi, az znaya. Not to mention the fact that the population of our country is going to shrink to 4 or 5 million by 2050 meanwhile Turkey is going to grow to 100 million at the same time.

[Saruman]

Bulgarian army is I would say in not great state at the moment, weaponry is mostly obsolete, and at the moment not very numerous either. I would rate the land forces lower than Serbian Army for sure. Considering the military power of your southern neighbor(s), that's rather worrying.

[poiuytrewq0987]

Bulgarian army is I would say in not great state at the moment, weaponry is mostly obsolete, and at the moment not very numerous either. I would rate the land forces lower than Serbian Army for sure. Considering the military power of your southern neighbor(s), that's rather worrying.

The Turks could reconquer all of the Balkans today if they wanted to. No Balkan country is in position to fight Turkey's 1 million strong army. I don't think the Bulgarian land force is worse than Serbia's. We're regularly training with the US's soldiers, we have some nice equipment such as American humvees, and recently-acquired armored SUVs from Israel, but other than that our land equipment is still stuck in the Soviet era just like Serbia's land equipment is still stuck in the SFRJ era.

[poiuytrewq0987]

Turkey produces a lot of military equipment domestically. In fact, they're planning to build their own battle tanks that will be light years ahead of the T72s the majority of Balkan countries have excluding Greece (Greece has about 300 Leopard II tanks) \ Those 300 Leopards will be pretty helpful but they'll be outnumbered since Turkey plans to produce around 1,000 new MBTs so they certainly will have a numerical advantage.

[Saruman]

The Turks could reconquer all of the Balkans today if they wanted to. No Balkan country is in position to fight Turkey's 1 million strong army.

Yes, they could come before Wiena again. Their army is numerous with great training, numerous and solid equipment, and it is going to become stronger soon when MİTÜP Altay tanks come into play. Greeks are strong but I would say not as trained.

I don't think the Bulgarian land force is worse than Serbia's. We're regularly training with the US's soldiers, we have some nice equipment such as American humvees, and recently-acquired armored SUVs from Israel, but other than that our land equipment is still stuck in the Soviet era just like Serbia's land equipment is still stuck in the SFRJ era.

Well Serbia is upgrading M-84's to a standard close/similar to T-90 at the moment (M-2001), while Bulgarian have still T-72's. Also Serbian army has been reorganized recently, movement towards a sizable professional force made, the training level is still solid, though I see Radojica had some leisure eh?
Also look at the disparity in quality artillery, IFV's.
So yes Bulgarian army is behind, but not by too much.