In Bulgaria, the Bulgarian military is responsible for guaranteeing Bulgaria’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, providing support to international peace and security missions, and contributing to national security in peacetime, including such missions as responding to disasters or assisting with border security; the military trains regularly including in multinational exercises with regional partners and with NATO since Bulgaria joined the organization in 2004; it also participates in overseas peacekeeping and other security missions under the EU, NATO, and the UN; in 2022, Bulgaria established and began leading a NATO multinational battlegroup as part of an effort to boost NATO defenses in Eastern Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; in 2021, Bulgaria approved a 10-year defense development program, which included calls for equipment upgrades and procurements, boosts in manpower, organizational reforms, and greater focus on such areas as cyber defense, communications, logistics support, and research and development

the Bulgarian military has participated in several significant conflicts since its establishment in 1878, including the Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885), the First Balkan War (1912-13), the Second Balkan War (1913), World War I (1915-1918), and World War II (1941-45); during the Cold War it was one of the Warsaw Pact’s largest militaries with over 150,000 personnel, eight ground combat divisions, and more than 200 Soviet-made combat aircraft; the principal combat units of the modern-day Land Forces are two mechanized infantry brigades and regiments of artillery and mountain infantry, while the Air Force has a mix of about 20 US-made and Soviet-era fighter aircraft; it is in the midst of retiring the Soviet fighters and replacing them with additional US-made aircraft; NATO partners provide assistance with protecting Bulgaria’s airspace; the Navy has four frigates, including one Soviet-era and three secondhand vessels acquired from Belgium, plus three Soviet-era corvettes; Bulgaria retired the last of its Soviet-era submarines in 2011; the military also has a joint special operations command, a communications, information support, and cyber defense command, and a joint forces command, which was established in 2021 to coordinate the operations of the services (2023)