From the red coat to the blue coat: the history of military uniforms in Europe. Bulgarian Armed Forces

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Uniform of the Bulgarian People's Army, sample 1955.

K.S.Vasiliev

A characteristic feature of the uniform of the armed forces of all countries of people's democracy from the late 1940s to the last third of the 1950s is the copying of certain features of the Soviet military uniform. This was expressed either in insignia or in the cut of uniforms. But nowhere did this trend manifest itself more clearly than in the form of the Bulgarian People's Army of the 1955 model.

The creators of this kit, without further ado, simply adapted the Soviet uniform of the late 1940s and early 1950s to the natural features of the Balkans.

BNA form arr. 1955 It was subdivided according to its purpose into front and everyday. For generals and officers, both dress and everyday uniforms, in turn, were divided into uniforms for the ranks and out of ranks. According to the season (and this was a national feature), the uniform was divided into summer, winter without an overcoat and winter in an overcoat.

Let's take a closer look at the BNA form. At the same time, it will be easier to point out not the similarity, but the difference between the Soviet and Bulgarian uniforms of that time, because almost all items of uniform had a cut identical to the Soviet models of that time.

Let's start with the generals.

The generals of the ground forces (except for aviation) wore a closed double-breasted uniform in the color of a sea wave in full dress. The difference from the Soviet uniform was a white dress belt with a round buckle and a cord on a Bulgarian-style cap. In everyday uniforms, a closed tunic and khaki trousers were worn. The form for formation differed from the form out of formation with trousers in boots. Moreover, even with a combat uniform, the generals did not wear belts. In the winter form, a hat was worn in an overcoat.

Aviation generals wore double-breasted jackets with buttonholes, blue in full dress, and protective in everyday uniform.

The officers of the ground forces, except for the armored ones, were given closed single-breasted uniforms in full dress. In everyday uniforms, in winter, they were relied on single-breasted closed tunics, and in summer, gymnasts were worn in uniform for formation. Pilots and tankers in winter uniforms had double-breasted jackets. Aviators in the summer in the ranks also wore jackets (but made of cotton fabric), and tankers wore tunics. In winter, officers wore double-breasted greatcoats and hats with earflaps.

Soldiers and sergeants wore closed single-breasted dress uniforms and trousers with boots. Moreover, the soldiers and sergeants of military service had bakelite buttons on all types of uniforms and plaques painted in a protective color on the belts, and they relied on brass for re-enlisted men. In everyday uniforms, soldiers and sergeants-conscripts wore straight trousers tucked into boots with leather leggings, and over-conscripts - trousers in boots. Overcoats for soldiers and sergeants were supposed to be single-breasted, fastened with hooks with sewn decorative buttons, for conscripts 5 pieces, for conscripts - 6. The cap was worn by conscripts with all types of uniforms, except for winter with an overcoat, and conscripts only with dress uniform without an overcoat. In the summer with a tunic they wore a cap, and in winter with earflaps.

The cadets wore the same uniform as the reenlisted sergeants, but with blue trousers. With a summer dress uniform, they were also supposed to have a white tunic.

The insignia in the BNA were the same as in the Soviet army, only the size of the shoulder straps differed (they were slightly smaller) and the instrument colors. The stars on the headdresses did not have the image of a hammer and sickle.

The uniform and insignia of the Bulgarian military sailors did not almost differ from the Soviet one. The exception was the shoulder straps of midshipmen and admirals.

This form did not last long. Already in 1957. it was replaced by a new one with more pronounced national features.

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Well, today let's remember the Bulgarian People's Army.

In my deep conviction, this was perhaps the weakest of all the armies of the Eastern bloc. And this is due to the fact that the country was the furthest away from the probable theater of operations, although it is difficult to call it the rear. She had her own tasks - the fight against NATO troops in Greece and work with Turkey.

Speaking of weakness, one must understand that this is a relative issue. The Bulgarian People's Republic had enough forces and means, especially in modern times :-) It's just that IMHO they were weaker than the Germans, and Czechs, and Romanians and Hungarians.
Well, one more thing. In Bulgaria, there were no units of the Soviet Army at all, and this is also quite significant, agree?

As in the First World War, the Second Bulgaria began as an enemy of our country. Of course, this was the weakest link among the satellites of the Reich, and the Bulgarians did not fight against it at all. There are rumors about one part, but in general, nothing concrete. Well, as soon as the Red Army came to its borders, they quickly made a military coup and went over to the side of the allies.
Therefore, in principle, we can say that the Bulgarian People's Army was created back in 1944. And they even took part in the battles for Lake Balaton and in Yugoslavia and Austria. It's funny that they fought on German technology. Ours handed them just a trophy one - and it’s more convenient, and the Bulgarians were trained on it. For example, the Bulgarians on their "Panther"

The post-war Sovietization of the country also affected the armed forces. We can say that the Bulgarian People's Army was in the wake of the Soviet army. At first, most of the officers studied with us.
By the 80s, a clear and harmonious system of the armed forces of the NRB had developed.
The number was 152,000 people.

The army was divided into
- ground troops
- Air Defense Forces and Air Force
- Navy
And additional forces: construction troops, rear structures and services, civil defense.
The border troops were subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In Bulgaria, there were 4 military schools for the training of officers and one Military Academy. G. S. Rakovsky.
The army was subordinated to the Minister of National Defense. The most famous minister was General of the Army Dobri Dzhurov.

The ground forces consisted of eight mechanized divisions and five tank brigades, which had a fairly large number of tanks - 1900, although only 100 of which were T-72s. The rest is T-62, T-55 and most importantly a huge amount of T-34-85. In Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Bulgarians entered precisely on "thirty-fours".

The army had a lot of armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles.
Particular emphasis was placed on the defense of the borders with Turkey and Greece. So the towers from the failed Soviet tanks, as well as the towers of the German tanks Pz.III and Pz.IV, were used in the construction of fortifications on the Bulgarian-Turkish border.
The army was armed with 8 R-400 (SS 23) systems with a coverage of 480 km; 50 R-300 Elbrus (Scud) complexes with the ability to install nuclear warheads with a coverage of 300 km; as well as tactical missile systems 9K52 "Luna" with a coverage of 70 km with the possibility of installing a nuclear warhead, 1 complex 9K79 "Tochka" (SS21) with a coverage of 70 km.

The air defense forces were also not bad. The armament consisted of 26 anti-aircraft missile divisions armed with complexes: S-200 with coverage up to 240 km, 10 S-300 mobile units with coverage up to 75 km, 20 SA-75 Volkhov mobile units with coverage up to 43 km and SA-75 "Dvina" with a coverage of up to 29 km, 20 mobile systems 2K12 "KUB" with a coverage of up to 24 km, 1 anti-aircraft missile brigade of the 2K11 "Krug" system with a coverage of 50 km, 24 mobile air defense systems "Osa" with a coverage of up to 13 km, 30 S-125 Pechora mobile installations with a coverage of 28 km, 20 9K35 Strela-USV mobile complexes with a coverage of 5 km.

The air force had about 300 aircraft and helicopters. The basis was, of course, the MiG-21, of which there were an overwhelming number, but there were also modern aircraft - the MiG-23, MiG-25 and even the MiG-29. Plus about 50 Mi-24 helicopters.

Serious funds were concentrated in the Navy. The fleet included 2 destroyers, 3 patrol ships, 1 frigate, 1 missile corvette, 4 submarines, 6 missile boats, 6 torpedo boats, 12 submarine pursuers, several dozen minelayers, base and raid minesweepers, patrol ships, landing ships serving ships, boats and others;

coastal missile systems and coastal artillery 130 mm and 100 mm batteries controlled by radar stations, naval helicopter squadron, naval aviation with 10 combat and 1 transport vehicles, parachute and diving units, marine battalion. Not bad so.

The uniform as a whole was originally borrowed from the Soviet army.

Gradually, it began to acquire its own features and characteristics with an emphasis on historical memory - the cut of the uniform, a different color of matter, other buttonholes, as well as its own special Bulgarian cap, similar to the Italian bustina, which we talked about here: https://id77.livejournal .com/640771.html

The duration of military service in the army, air force and air defense was two years, in the navy - three years.

This is what the army was like.
Well, as usual, a few photos:

Have a nice time of the day.

North, Jonathan.
H82 Soldiers of the First World War 1914-1918. Uniform, insignia, equipment and weapons / Jonathan North; [per. from English. M. Vitebsky]. - Moscow: Eksmo, 2015. - 256 p. ISBN 978-5-699-79545-1
"Soldiers of the First World War"- a complete encyclopedia of the history of military uniforms and equipment of the armies that fought on the fronts of the "Great War". Its pages show the uniforms of not only the main countries of the Entente and the Triple Alliance (England, France, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary), but in general all the countries involved in this terrible conflict.
Generals and staff officers of the RIA.
British generals and staff officers.
Generals and staff officers. France.
Generals, staff officers, Guards. Germany.
RIA Guard. North Jonathan.
British Guard.
Elite infantry, RIA infantry. .
British infantry. Western front.
Infantry of France. .
US Infantry and Marines.
German infantry.
Infantry. Austria-Hungary.
Landwehr, Honved, Technical Troops. Austria-Hungary.
Jaegers and alpine shooters. France.
foreign parts. France.
RIA cavalry.
Cossacks and foreign parts of the RIA.
French cavalry.
Cavleria. Austria-Hungary.
colonial troops. France.
Colonial units, huntsmen, mountain shooters. Germany.
Stormtroopers, Landwehr. Germany.
British cavalry. .
German cavalry.
Artillery RIA.
British artillery
Artillery and technical troops of France.
Artillery and technical troops. Germany.
UK aviation
RIA technical troops. North Jonathan.
US technical troops.
Troops from Australia and New Zealand
Troops from Canada and Newfoundland.
Troops of Portugal and Belgium.
Troops of Italy, Serbia and Montenegro.
Troops of Romania, Greece, Japan.
Troops of the Ottoman Empire.
French Air Force.
Indian troops. United Kingdom.
African troops. United Kingdom.
States - participants in the Great War. North Jonathan.

BULGARIA 1914-1918 . Page 246

Bulgaria lost the Second Balkan War in 1913. As a result, in 1915 she decided to join in Germany.

Infantry
Bulgarian infantrymen mostly wore brown uniforms (uniforms and trousers). Most of the regiments had red epaulettes (with the regiment number embroidered with yellow thread or applied with yellow paint), a red stand-up collar and cuffs, and trousers also had a red edging. However, in ten royal regiments, the cuffs, shoulder straps and edging differed from the standard ones: in the 1st they were scarlet, in the 4th - yellow, in the regiment of Tsar Ferdinand (6th) - white, in the 8th - blue, 9 -m - blue, 17th - bright red, 18th - white, 20th - royal blue, 22nd - light green and 24th - orange. In these regiments, monograms of chiefs were worn on shoulder straps, galloons on a red standing collar. The caps had blue crowns and red bands (which could also be of the above colors). Most often, brown covers were worn on caps. The officers wore a green uniform and a Russian-style cap. The cap and shoulder straps had a characteristic edging. The latter were lined with galloons, on which the regiment number or encryption was placed. Chin denoted metal stars in the form of rhombuses. The cap had a green visor, a Bulgarian white-green-red cockade inside a white metal oval was attached to its front. Officers sometimes wore a dress belt, but black or brown belts were more commonly preferred. The officer's coat was light gray with a dark blue collar and red buttonholes. Across the shoulder straps of non-commissioned officers were gold or yellow stripes. In 1915, most of the infantrymen were dressed in field gray uniforms with red piping on the collar and shoulder straps and sometimes on the cut of the front shelf of the uniform. Regimental numbers were now also in red, the original colors of the chiefs' regiments were also a thing of the past. In the summer, the infantrymen wore light blue tunics and brown trousers. The equipment was made of natural brown leather and included a waist belt with pouches, a German-style satchel and a flask. Before the war, there was an acute shortage of overcoats in the army, so in 1913 the military placed an order in Russia for 300,000 overcoats and 250,000 pairs of boots. German helmets began to be used in limited quantities in 1916-1917. As a rule, they were painted in brown or steel gray. They did not have any insignia or emblems. By the end of the war, various types of uniforms were used in the Bulgarian infantry, in particular, in the militia and in irregular units formed from Macedonians. Even the troops at the front suffered from a general shortage and were forced to fight barefoot and in rags.

Cavalry and artillery
Cavalrymen wore green uniforms (although blue and brown uniforms were also found) and blue breeches. The uniforms had red piping. Privates and officers had silver buttons. In the Bulgarian cavalry, there were four patron regiments, in which they wore caps with a red band and shoulder straps (with different codes for members of the royal families), but with different piping: in the 1st regiment (Tsar Ferdinand) they wore a white piping, in the 2nd regiment - scarlet, in the 3rd - yellow and in the 4th - white. On the collar of the greatcoat (usually gray for both officers and privates) there were colored buttonholes.

The Life Guards Cavalry Regiment was quartered in Sofia. The soldiers and officers of the regiment wore blue uniforms with epaulettes, blue breeches and red caps. As a rule, cavalrymen used equipment made of white leather. The gunners wore brown uniforms with a black collar trimmed in red, and caps with a black band, also with a red piping. Shoulder straps were usually black with a red edging, the regiment number was indicated in yellow on them (in the 3rd and 4th regiments boss codes were indicated - the 3rd regiment had the letter B (Cyrillic), the 4th - the letter F - also Cyrillic). In the regiments of the fortress artillery, the letter K was located on shoulder straps, in the mountain artillery - the letter P, in the coastal artillery - the letter B. The officers wore green uniforms and breeches and green caps with a red band trimmed with black piping.

In engineering and sapper units they wore the same uniform, but with silver buttons. Breeches, as a rule, were blue for officers and brown for lower ranks. In all artillery units, crossed gun barrels were stamped on the buttons. In specialized units, they wore the same uniform as in engineering and sapper units. But in the bridge-building companies, there was an emblem in the form of an anchor on shoulder straps, and in signal companies - lightning bolts.

The desire to return the territories (primarily Macedonia) lost during the Second Balkan War pushed the Bulgarian leadership to take action. Expecting to return Macedonia (which became part of Serbia) at a convenient moment with the help of Germany and Austria-Hungary, forced the Bulgarian tsar to liquidate the Russophile Bulgarian generals.
After Radoslavov's government came to power, Russia's influence in the country was undermined. In attempts to restore its influence in Bulgaria, Russian diplomacy failed. Russia offered to transfer the important port of Kavala on the Aegean coast to Bulgaria, but France and Great Britain did not support this initiative.
Attempts by Russian diplomats to restore the Balkan Union also failed. After that, the Russian government was hostile to Radoslavov's cabinet.

Bulgaria entered World War I on October 14, 1915 on the side of the Central Powers, declaring war on Serbia. At the beginning of the war, Bulgaria declared neutrality, but soon the Bulgarian government decided to take the side of the powers of the Central Bloc.

Bulgarian troops participated in operations against Serbia and Romania, fought on the Thessaloniki front. During the war, Bulgarian troops occupied a significant part of the territory of Serbia, Romania and Greece. In September 1918, the allied forces managed to break through the front of the Bulgarian army, and on September 29, 1918, Bulgaria was forced to sign an armistice with the Entente countries.
In 1919, the Treaty of Neuilly was concluded, according to which Bulgaria, as the losing side in the war, lost part of its territory and population.

The Bulgarian army was the best army of the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. Combat training was set at a high level, the command of the armed forces paid great attention to the improvement of the army. The most important field and infantry charters were reissued and corresponded to the requirements of the time. After the Balkan Wars, a significant part of the army had combat experience. The army of Bulgaria could be considered provided with modern types of weapons and equipment at that time. However, the lack of a developed military industry made Bulgaria dependent on the supply of weapons from abroad.

After the end of the Balkan Wars at the end of 1913, Bulgaria increased its purchases of weapons and ammunition from Austria-Hungary and Germany. In the Bulgarian military schools, the admission of cadets expanded, and in the army, the retraining of officers and non-commissioned officers was intensively carried out, taking into account the experience of the ended war.
Non-commissioned officers were trained in training teams at parts of the troops. The officers were trained at the Sofia Military School, and many officers of the Bulgarian army also had a foreign military education, mainly received in Russia.

The land forces of Bulgaria consisted of a field army (its reserve), a reserve army, a people's militia and reserve troops. Reserve troops were formed after mobilization to replenish the losses of the army in the field.
The Ministry of War consisted of the army headquarters, the office, the main commissariat, inspections of cavalry, artillery and military engineering units, military judicial and military sanitary inspections.

The term of active military service was 2 years in the infantry, 3 years in other branches of the military. Military service was universal and all Bulgarian male subjects from 20 to 46 years old were subject to conscription.
Muslims (Pomaks and Turks) were allowed to pay military tax instead of military service for 10 years. During the war, Bulgarian Muslims were allowed to enter the service of the Ottoman army.
The army recruitment system was territorial. The divisional regions that replenished the divisions were divided into regimental districts, and the regimental districts into squad areas to replenish battalions.

The Bulgarian infantry was mainly armed with Austrian rifles of the Mannlicher M1895 system, 8 mm caliber, model 1895, 1890 and 1888, which were the regular rifles of the Bulgarian army.
In addition to these models, a small number of Mosin rifles of the 1895 model of the year (purchased in Russia during the Balkan Wars), captured Turkish Mauser rifles (which were captured during the First Balkan War), Martini-Mauser rifles, Berdan rifles and Krnk rifles were in service. In addition to rifles, the ground forces were armed with Parabellum pistols, Smith & Wesson revolvers and Maxim machine guns.

The Bulgarian cavalry was armed with swords, German artillery sabers A.S. 1873 and Austrian carbines Mannlicher M 1895. Horse breeding in Bulgaria could not fully meet the needs of the army in horses, so at the beginning of the 20th century Bulgaria bought horses in Austria-Hungary and Russia.
Artillery was divided into field, fortress and mountain. The Bulgarian gunners were armed with French and German guns and howitzers of the Schneider and Krupp systems. In 1915, the Bulgarian army had 428 75 mm field guns, 103 75 mm mountain guns and 34 120 mm howitzers.
After the mobilization, the Bulgarian army had 85 cars, 25 trucks and 8 ambulances. There were no armored vehicles in the Bulgarian armed forces.

Also, at the time of entry into the First World War in Bulgaria, there were 2 aeronautic departments numbering 124 people, of which 7 were pilots and 8 were observers. Bulgarian aviation had 2 German Albatros B.I, 2 French Blériot IX-2 and 1 Blériot IX-bis. In addition, on September 27, 1915, 3 German Fokker E.III airplanes arrived in Bulgaria to protect Sofia from enemy attacks.

Today Bulgaria celebrates St. George's Day. This is a traditional holiday of the Bulgarian army and the so-called Day of Courage. The history of the holiday dates back to 1880, when Grand Duke Alexander Battenberg established a military order "For Courage" by decree. Here I did not set myself the goal of making an excursion into history. On the contrary, I would like to talk a little about the current state of the Bulgarian army. Of course, the Bulgarians know this much better than I do, but I myself wanted to at least a little understand this on my own, using open sources.

I would like to immediately emphasize the following: in the opinion of both Western and Russian military experts, the development of the Armed Forces in Bulgaria over the past 25 years is the most successful example of military reform compared to other post-socialist countries. Moreover, other armies of the NATO member countries can learn something from the example of the modern development of the Bulgarian army.

Back in the 90s of the last century, the Bulgarian military-political leadership adopted a number of reasonable, according to experts, policy decisions that determined the main directions for the development of the national armed forces. An intelligent Doctrine of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria has been developed, and the next stage of reform is currently underway, based on the five-year Plan for the Development of the Armed Forces of Bulgaria for 2010-2014.

In 2011-2013, a fairly broad public discussion took place in Bulgaria about the role and prospects of the army, timed to coincide with the centenary of the Balkan wars. Foreign and Russian military analysts unanimously note that this discussion had a fruitful effect on the course of military reform. Moreover, the discussion of the state of affairs in the defense sphere had an impact on some adjustment of NATO's fundamental guidelines. As I understand it, the question concerns the number of troops. According to Article 3 of the NATO Collective Defense Agreement, the attacked state must ensure, with the help of its national armed forces, the deterrence of the enemy within 5 days. Until the united contingents of the bloc pull up. Moreover, the initial size of the Bulgarian army should be equal to 26 thousand military personnel. However, the military-political leadership of the country listened to the participants in the discussion and experts who argued that such small forces are clearly not enough to deter. The reduction of the Armed Forces was suspended.

Now the data on the total number of the Bulgarian armed forces in different sources are different, and the figure currently fluctuates around 34.5 thousand military personnel. The different figures are connected, apparently, with the fact that just now organizational and staffing measures are being continued to improve the command structure. The Joint Command of Forces has been created - a military body that makes operational decisions on the use of the army (of all branches of service) both in wartime and in peacetime. An interesting fact: the annual plan for combat training of troops is carried out by almost 100%, and by certain indicators (landing of units from the air, for example) - by 120%.

Ground forces there are approximately 21 thousand people. At the beginning of 2014, they consist of the following units and subunits located in 14 garrisons and 28 military zones:
- Brigades: 2nd and 61st mechanized;
- Regiments: 4th artillery, 55th engineering, 68th special operations and 110th logistics;
- Battalions of the 1st reconnaissance, 3rd separate mechanized (new), 38th defense against weapons of mass destruction and 78th psychological operations;
- 2 training centers (instead of one or two centers for the repair and storage of weapons and military equipment) and 1 training ground "Koren". The leadership of the Bulgarian armed forces also refused to close the well-equipped Novo Selo training ground. Now it has retained the status of not only the country's largest training center for ground forces and aviation, but has also become one of the training centers for troops within NATO. In addition, based on the experience of operations in Afghanistan, the Bulgarian military implemented the advanced principle of recruiting a tactical combat unit: BBGs were created - combat battalion groups. This experience is adopted by other armies of the bloc. The main armament of the personnel of the ground forces is the Bakalov assault rifle, developed by Bulgarian designers (the Arsenal plant), taking into account the experience of similar types of small arms. (I could not find detailed information about this machine). The Bulgarian military did not refuse (despite the requirements of the NATO command) from the Soviet T-72 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles (BMP-1), BMP-23 (Bulgarian production) and MT-LB (light armored small tractor). On the contrary, there is a planned modernization of this equipment. Along with this, the ground forces of Bulgaria are being supplied with the latest wheeled infantry fighting vehicle "Wolverine" (developed by TEREM Khan Krum), the performance characteristics of which correspond to the level of modern German, French and Swedish ones.

Air Force They are subdivided into: command, two air bases, a forward deployment base, an anti-aircraft missile base (a total of 5 anti-aircraft missile battalions), a command, control and surveillance base, a special equipment base and a military police company. The Bulgarian Air Force has 5 airfields based aviation: Graf Ignatievo (fighters), Bezmer (attack aircraft), Dolna Mitropoliia (training aircraft), Krumovo (helicopters) and Vrazhdebna (transport aviation). The Bulgarian leadership also approached the issue of technical re-equipment of the Air Force in a very balanced way, in my opinion. As for transport aviation, the purchase of C-27J Spartan aircraft is already underway, and by 2017 it is planned to purchase a modern C-17 Gloubmaster II transport aircraft from the United States. This is very relevant in terms of increasing the participation of Bulgarian troops in international operations of NATO troops. But in terms of rearmament of fighter and attack aircraft, there are different approaches. In view of the fact that NATO partners and Israel offered to supply Bulgaria with obsolete models (American F-16AM and Israeli Kfir C.60), the Bulgarian military took the path of modernizing existing aircraft - the Soviet MiG-29 and Su-25. An interesting fact: in 2011-2012, training battles took place at the Graf Ignatievo air base between Kfir and F-16AM on the one hand and Bulgarian modified MiG-29s on the other, which revealed the undeniable advantages of the latter. There are simply no funds yet for the purchase of the latest Western multi-purpose aircraft, but the Bulgarian leadership plans to return to this issue after 2015. Soon.

Naval Forces Bulgaria has one naval base, consisting of two bases: Varna and Burgas (Atiya). Initial plans to reduce the Navy led to the elimination of the submarine component of the fleet (the last submarine was decommissioned in 2011). Currently in service are 6 warships, 6 combat support ships and 5 auxiliary ships (information is not accurate). By order of the Bulgarian Navy, a modern corvette "Govind-200" is being built at the shipyard in French Lorient. A total of 4 such corvettes have been ordered. A very expensive project.

The weakening of the fleet caused serious natural dissatisfaction with the military and defense industry, who proposed a new concept for the development of the fleet based on the implementation of the national shipbuilding program. Bulgaria has prospects here. Bulgaria, in a rather limited timeframe (2011-2012), built the Bata corvette for the Equatorial Guinean Navy, according to the Ukrainian project SV-01 (code "Kasatka", also known as the OPV-88 project), which is not inferior in its characteristics to " Govindu-200". It would seem that there is nothing special in this contract, if you do not take into account the unprecedented secrecy measures for its implementation and the fact that Bata was far from the first model.

Reserve. In recent years, the Bulgarian leadership began to pay close attention to the formation of a reserve of troops. Scheduled training camps are held twice a year, and in 2013 about 5,000 reservists were trained. In total, the combat strength of the Bulgarian Armed Forces can count on 15 soldiers and officers of the first echelon reserve. The country's military warehouses store weapons to equip an army of up to 160,000 people. I think that for Bulgaria this is not bad at all.

Findings: According to independent military experts, the Bulgarian military-political leadership finds an opportunity to suspend and correct the military reform, proceeding from the strategic and socio-economic interests of the state and its population, and not under the influence of politically relevant trends.
Military reform in Bulgaria, in conditions of some underfunding, with a decrease in the size of the armed forces as a whole and the number of their weapons, led not only to a decrease, but also to an increase in the military potential of the state in a number of indicators.