Defense industry of Bulgaria

Bulgaria is a NATO member country with a large indigenous defence industry. Most of its weaponry is of Soviet design, but with significantly improved performance. Bulgaria is ranked as a "medium" small arms exporter according to the Small Arms Survey.[1]

History

Despite having local arms factories, until 1944 Bulgaria relied mostly on imports to equip its military. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian defence industry was capable of producing training and light attack aircraft, such as the DAR-10 and Laz-7. After the installment of a Communist government the same year, the country started a process of massive industrialization, but continued to import equipment. By the 1980s a large part of the equipment came from local suppliers. In the late 1980s exports reached about $800 mln. annually, trade partners being mostly Egypt, Algeria, Angola, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Cuba and Vietnam.

After the loss of Warsaw Pact and secondary markets, surplus weapons, as well as newly-manufactured items, were illicitly exported to a variety of countries and rebel groups across Africa and Asia.[2]

Manufacturers
  • Arsenal AD[3] - oldest weapons manufacturer (est. 1878), largest machine-building company in the country; produces pistols, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, light machine guns, machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars, air-defense systems, anti-tank grenade launchers, automatic grenade launchers, ammunition for small arms, artillery rounds, bombs, anti-tank weapons ammunition, unguided rockets and others;
  • TEREM[4] - mostly ammunition and spares;
  • VMZ Sopot[5] - anti-tank guided and unguided missiles, aviation unguided missiles and artillery ammunition;
  • Samel 90[6] - communication equipment, surface-to-air missiles and others;
  • Armstechno - drones and UAVs;
  • THOR Global Defense Group - Small Arms and Long Range Systems - Franchise Office;
  • Apolo GmbH[7] - uniforms;
  • State military technology institute
  • MARS Armor Ltd.[8] - body armor and personal ballistic protection solutions.
  • Armaco JSC

Products

Small arms
  • AR series - AR-M1 assault rifle and others. The basic AR-M1 is chambered in 5.45x39 mm, has a 600 rpm rate of fire, 900 m/s muzzle velocity, nearly 600 g lighter than the original AK-74 (loaded weight), somewhat more durable, a rail for an optical or reflex sights.
  • AKS-74u assault rifle
  • Arsenal Shipka submachine gun
  • LMG light machine gun
  • MG-M1 general purpose machine gun
  • Arcus 98DA pistol
  • Makarov PM pistol

Artillery
  • Mortars - 60–120 mm
  • 2S12 Tundzha SP mortars (two variants - 82 and 120 mm)
  • 2S1 Karamfil SP howitzers

Air defence equipment

Anti-tank weapons

Armored vehicles
A Bulgarian-made MT-LB used by the USMC
  • MT-LB in different versions
  • BMP-23
  • BTR-60:
  • BTR-60PAU - Artillery command variant of the BTR-60PA with 4 whip antennas.
  • BTR-60PB with Polish WAT turret from SKOT-2AP. Only a prototype was made.
  • BTR-60PB-MD (bronyetransport’or moderniziran) - BTR-60PB upgraded with VAMO DT3900 or Rover TD-200 diesel engine, four MB smoke grenade dischargers on the turret (two on each side), "Melopa" night sight, new day sight, new NBC protection system and modern radios. It also has a rear view mirror on the left hand side of the hull. Only a prototype was made.
    • BTR-60PB-MD1 - Version for the Bulgarian army, powered by a Cummins ISB 25.30 turbocharged Euro 3 diesel engine of 250 hp and fitted with side hatches. About 150 in service.
    • BTR-60PB-MD3 - export model, fitted with a KamAZ diesel engine, different sights and eight additional smoke grenade launchers in the front right corner of the hull. The prototype, shown in 2004, was based on a BTR-60PA.

Missiles and rockets

Ammunition

Other

Customers

References
  1. Small Arms Survey 2011: States of Security (PDF). Oxford University Press. 2011. p. 3.
  2. Bulgaria Becomes a Weapons Bazaar, The New York Times, 3 August 1998
  3. "ARSENAL Home Page". Arsenal.bg. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  4. "ТЕРЕМ - Българските военноремонтни заводи". Terem.bg. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  5. "VMZ Co". Vmz.bg. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  6. "Samel 90". Samel 90. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-08-19. Retrieved 2019-07-21.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "MARS Armor Homepage". marsarmor.com.
  9. ""Ер Франс" закарала БГ картечници в Конго". trud.bg. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  10. Angelovski, Ivan (27 July 2016). "Revealed: the £1bn of weapons flowing from Europe to Middle East" – via www.theguardian.com.
  11. Marzouk, Ivan Angelovski and Lawrence. "Revealed: The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2 Billion on Soviet-Style Arms for Syrian Rebels". OCCRP.
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