Repair of Graf Ignatievo Air Base Runway Due to Be Completed in July 2023

Jerusalem, 9 February, 2023 (TPS) -- GRAF IGNATIEVO, 09.02.2023 (BTA)
The repair of the runway of the Graf Ignatievo Air Base is due to be completed by July this year, said to journalists on Thursday caretaker Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov, who inspected the construction and assembly works at the airbase and participated in a meeting of the working group for coordination of infrastructure projects in connection with the acquisition and operation of the F-16 Block 70 aircraft.

After the reconstruction of the runway, the combat and combat trainer aircraft of the airbase – MiG-29 and L-39 ZA, which are currently based at Plovdiv Airport, will return to Graf Ignatievo.

It transpired during a working meeting with the contractors that five different projects are being carried out on the air base runway. One is to extend the runway from the current 2,536 meters to 3,090. The others are for the construction or extension of various sites, including aircraft refueling, fuel storage and cargo aircraft, taxiway reconstructions. Projects are also underway on plumbing and runway lighting. There is no backlog on these projects, the materials have been ordered and only the freezing temperatures could delay work, the contractors said.

The F-16 Block 70 aircraft was designated as the main combat aircraft of the Bulgarian Air Force in December 2018 and the contract was signed in August 2019, the minister said. Currently, 36 contracts have been signed, all of them awarded directly, with 100% advance payment, worth a total of BGN 202 million, according to Stoyanov.

He said 21 construction sites are to be opened, four of them by the end of February and the rest by May. Public tenders will be published for nine projects. “Considering tenders, we are looking for competitiveness, the lowest possible prices and a 30% advance payment, preferably with a bank guarantee,” the minister added.

Stoyanov said that there is no delay in individual construction sites, but that some processes should have been started over three years ago. If there has been any culpable behavior that caused the delay, the military prosecutor’s office should look into the matter, Stoyanov said in response to a question about whose fault it was.

He expressed hope that by the end of 2024 the Graf Ignatievo Air Base will have a US certificate that it is fit for the F-16 fighter jets. The first F-16 are expected to arrive in early 2025. If the infrastructure is not certified, the planes will remain in the US which will entail additional costs.

Bulgaria has never ceded combat air policing duty, the minister stressed. According to him, it will certainly be carried out with MiG-29s by the end of the year.

The complex project for modernizing of Graf Ignatievo to make i fit for use of F-16 Block 70 aircraft, contains 47 separate construction sites and is a priority for the Ministry of Defense.