Lockheed Martin Corporation announced that on January 31, 2025, at its facility in Greenville, South Carolina, it officially handed over to Bulgaria the first F-16 Block 70 (F-16V) fighter, out of 16 ordered. Bulgarian Defense Minister Atanas Zapryanov attended the ceremony of handing over the F-16D Block 70 two-seat fighter aircraft (serial number MW-01, USAF number 20-6001, Bulgarian tail number 301) to the Bulgarian Air Force.
The first Lockheed Martin F-16D Block 70 fighter transferred to the Bulgarian Air Force (serial number MW-01, USAF number 20-6001, Bulgarian tail number "301"). Greenville, 01/31/2025 (c) Lockheed Martin
In July 2019, Bulgaria signed an intergovernmental agreement with the United States on the acquisition of eight F-16V Block 70 fighter jets (six single-seat F-16C and two two-seat F-16D) with a total cost of $1.1 billion through the American Intergovernmental Foreign Military Sales Program (FMS). Initially, their delivery was scheduled for 2023-2024, however, due to delays in organizing the production of F-16Vs at the new production line of Lockheed Martin Corporation in Greenville, these eight aircraft ordered by Bulgaria, according to the latest data, will be delivered in 2025-2026.
The single-seat F-16C fighters of the first batch received Bulgarian tail numbers from "311" to "316", and the double-seat F-16D received tail numbers "301" and "302". The first Bulgarian-made F-16C fighter (single-seat, serial number MV-01, tail number "311") made its maiden flight in Greenville on October 22, 2024. In November 2024, the first two-seat F-16D fighter made for Bulgaria (serial number MW-01, USAF number 20-6001, tail number "301") also made its first flight there, and has now been transferred to the Bulgarian side. The arrival of the first two Bulgarian F-16s in Bulgaria is tentatively expected in April 2025.
At the end of 2022, Bulgaria signed an agreement to purchase eight more F-16V Block 70 fighters (four single-seat F-16C and four two-seat F-16D) with a total cost of $1.296 billion through FMS, bringing the total order to 16 aircraft. A total of 16 F-16V fighters purchased in the Bulgarian Air Force will replace obsolete Soviet MiG-29 fighters and Su-25 attack aircraft.
The F-16V Block 70/72 modification is now the most advanced version of the F-16 fighter family and is equipped with the new Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) with AFAR. Lockheed Martin announced that the first aircraft transferred to Bulgaria became the 23rd newly built F-16V Block 70/72 fighter delivered, and the corporation has firm orders for 117 more such aircraft. Bulgaria became the third recipient of the newly built F-16V Block 70/72 after Bahrain and Slovakia . It should be noted that Lockheed Martin's statement on a total of 140 orders for the newly built F-16V differs from earlier reports, according to which Taiwan (66 aircraft), Turkey (40 aircraft), Morocco (24 aircraft), Bahrain (16 aircraft), Slovakia (14 aircraft), Bulgaria (16 planes) and Jordan (12 planes). Apparently, the Turkish order is still not considered final by the corporation, as, apparently, is the main part of the Jordanian order. Serial production of the F-16V began in 2023 at the Lockheed Martin facility in Greenville, where the American corporation moved production of the F-16 from the plant in Fort Worth (Texas). The first newly built F-16V Block 70 aircraft from the Greenville plant was transferred to the Bahrain Air Force in March 2023, and in 2024, 21 newly built F-16V Block 70/72 fighters were transferred to Bahrain and Slovakia.
The first Lockheed Martin F-16D Block 70 fighter transferred to the Bulgarian Air Force (serial number MW-01, USAF number 20-6001, Bulgarian tail number "301"). Greenville, 01/31/2025 (c) Lockheed Martin
The first Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 70 single-seat fighter aircraft built for the Bulgarian Air Force (serial number MV-01, Bulgarian tail number "311"). Greenville, the first picture was taken on 11/18/2024 (c) Brady Ensley, the second picture (c) Bulgarian Ministry of Defense
