Editing Bulgarian Armed Forces (section)

==History of the Bulgarian Army==
{{main|List of wars involving Bulgaria}}

=== 19th Century ===
{{main|Medieval Bulgarian Army|Opalchentsi}}
[[File:Mihail ganchev captain.JPG|thumb|left|200px|Bulgarian [[militia]]men from the Ganchev Detachment in the region of Western Bulgaria, ca. 1900]]
The modern Bulgarian military dates back to 1878. On 22 July 1878 (10 July O.S.) a total of 12 battalions of ''[[opalchentsi]]'' who participated in the Liberation war, formed the Bulgarian Armed Forces.<ref>Попов, В., Иванова, Ц., Велкова, Й. ''Българската земска войска 1878–1879 г.'', София, 1959, Държавно Военно Издателство, с. 60</ref> According to the [[Tarnovo Constitution]], all men between 21 and 40 years of age were eligible for military service. In 1883 the military was reorganised in four infantry [[brigade]]s (in Sofia, Pleven, Ruse and Shumen) and one cavalry [[brigade]].

===Serbo-Bulgarian war===
{{main|Serbo-Bulgarian War}}
The Serbo-Bulgarian War was the first armed conflict after [[Liberation of Bulgaria|Bulgaria's liberation]]. It was a result of the [[Bulgarian unification|unification]] with [[Eastern Rumelia]], which happened on 6 September 1885. The unification was not completely recognised, however, and one of the countries that refused to recognise the act was the [[Kingdom of Serbia]]. The [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] had been expanding its influence in the [[Balkans]], and was particularly opposed. Serbia also feared this would diminish its dominance in the region. In addition, Serbian ruler [[Milan Obrenović IV]] was annoyed that Serbian opposition leaders like [[Nikola Pašić]], who had escaped persecution after the [[Timok Rebellion]], had found asylum in Bulgaria. Lured by Austria-Hungary's promises of territorial gains from Bulgaria (in return for concessions in the western Balkans), Milan IV declared war on Bulgaria on 14 November 1885.

Military strategy relied largely on surprise, as Bulgaria had moved most of its troops near the border with the Ottoman Empire, in the southeast. As it happened, the Ottomans did not intervene and the Serbian army's advance was stopped after the [[Battle of Slivnitsa]]. The main body of the Bulgarian army travelled from the Ottoman border in the southeast to the Serbian border in the northwest to defend the capital, [[Sofia]]. After the defensive battles at Slivnitsa and [[Vidin]], Bulgaria began an offensive that took the city of [[Pirot]]. At this point the Austro-Hungarian Empire stepped in, threatening to join the war on Serbia's side if Bulgarian troops did not retreat. Fighting lasted for only 14 days, from 14 to 28 November. A peace treaty was signed in [[Bucharest]] on 19 February 1886. No territorial changes were made to either country, but Bulgarian unification was recognised by the Great Powers.

===First Balkan War===
{{main|First Balkan War}}
Instability in the Balkan region in the early 1900s quickly became a precursor for a new war. Serbia's aspirations towards Bosnia and Herzegovina were thwarted by the [[Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina|Austrian annexation of the province]] in October 1908, so the Serbs focused their attention onto [[Kosovo]], and to the south for expansion. Greek officers, [[Goudi coup|revolting]] in August 1909, had secured the appointment of a progressive government under [[Eleftherios Venizelos]], which they hoped would resolve the [[History of Crete#Modern Crete|Cretan issue]] in Greece's favor and reverse their [[Greco-Turkish War (1897)|defeat of 1897 by the Ottomans]]. Bulgaria, which had secured Ottoman recognition of its independence in April 1909 and enjoyed the friendship of Russia, also looked to districts of Ottoman Thrace and Macedonia for expansion.

[[File:Camels on the way to Catalca, 1912.jpg|thumb|250px|right|A [[camel]] caravan of the Bulgarian 17th Regiment carrying supplies for the [[First Battle of Çatalca|Çatalca operation]], 1912 ]]

In March 1910 an [[Albanians|Albanian]] insurrection broke out in Kosovo. In August Montenegro followed Bulgaria's precedent by becoming a kingdom. In 1911 Italy launched an [[Italo-Turkish War|invasion of Tripolitania]], which was quickly followed by the occupation of the [[Dodecanese]] Islands. The Italians' decisive military victories over the Ottoman Empire greatly influenced the Balkan states to prepare for war against Turkey. Thus, in the spring of 1912 consultations among the various Christian Balkan nations resulted in a network of military alliances that became known as the [[Balkan League]]. The Great Powers, most notably France and Austria-Hungary, reacted to this diplomatic sensation by trying to dissuade the League from going to war, but failed.

In late September both the League and the Ottoman Empire mobilised their armies. Montenegro was the first to declare war, on 25 September ([[Old Style|O.S.]])/ 8 October. The other three states, after issuing an impossible ultimatum to the Porte on 13 October, declared war on Turkey on 17 October. The Balkan League relied on 700,000 troops, 370,000 of whom were Bulgarians. Bulgaria, often dubbed "the [[Prussia]] of the Balkans",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/1/4/4/7/14477/14477-h/14477-h.htm|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of THE INSIDE STORY OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE, by Dr. E.J. Dillon.|website=Mirrorservice.org|access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref> was militarily the most powerful of the four states, with a large, well-trained and well-equipped army.<ref name=Hall16>{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=16}}</ref> The peacetime army of 60,000 troops was expanded during the war to 370,000,<ref name=Hall16 /> with almost 600,000 men mobilized in total out of a population of 4,300,000.<ref name=Hall18>{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=18}}</ref> The Bulgarian field army consisted of nine infantry divisions, one cavalry division and 1,116 artillery units.<ref name=Hall16 /> Commander-in-Chief was [[Ferdinand of Bulgaria|Tsar Ferdinand]], while the actual command was in the hands of his deputy, Gen. Mikhail Savov. The Bulgarians also possessed a small navy of six torpedo boats, which were restricted to operations along the country's [[Black Sea]] coast.<ref name=Hall17>{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=17}}</ref>

[[File:Bulgarian army adrinople.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Soldiers preparing for an assault against [[Adrianople]], 1912]]
Bulgaria's war aims were focused on [[Thrace]] and [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]]. For the latter, Bulgaria had a secret agreement with Serbia to divide it between them, signed on 13 March 1912 during the negotiations that led to the establishment of the Balkan League. However, it was not a secret that Bulgaria's target was the fulfillment of the never-materialized [[Treaty of San Stefano]], signed after the [[Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78]]. They deployed their main force in Thrace, forming three armies. The [[First Army (Bulgaria)|First Army]], under Gen. [[Vasil Kutinchev]] with three infantry divisions, was deployed to the south of [[Yambol]], with direction of operations along the [[Tundzha]] River. The [[Second Army (Bulgaria)|Second Army]], under Gen. [[Nikola Ivanov]] with two infantry divisions and one infantry brigade, was deployed west of the First and was assigned to capture the strong fortress of Adrianople (now [[Edirne]]). According to the plans, the [[Third Army (Bulgaria)|Third Army]], under Gen. [[Radko Dimitriev]], was deployed east of and behind the First and was covered by the cavalry division hiding it from the Turkish view. The Third Army had three infantry divisions and was assigned to cross the Stranja mountain and to take the fortress of Lozengrad ([[Kirk Kilisse]]). The 2nd and 7th divisions were assigned independent roles, operating in [[western Thrace]] and eastern Macedonia, respectively.

The first great battles were at the [[Adrianople]]–[[Kirk Kilisse]] defensive line, where the Bulgarian 1st and 3rd Armies (together 110,000 men) defeated the Ottoman East Army (130,000 men) near Gechkenli, Seliolu, and Petra. The fortress of [[Adrianople]] was [[Battle of Adrianople (1913)|besieged]] and [[Battle of Kirk Kelesse|Kirk Kilisse was taken]] without resistance under the pressure of the Bulgarian Third Army. The initial Bulgarian attack by First and Third Army defeated the Turkish forces, numbering some 130,000, and reached the [[Sea of Marmara]]. However, the Turks, with the aid of fresh reinforcements from the Asian provinces, established their third and strongest defensive position at the [[Chataldja]] Line, across the peninsula where [[Constantinople]] is located. New Turkish forces landed at [[Bulair]] and [[Şarköy]], but after heavy fighting they were crushed by the newly formed 4th Bulgarian Army under the command of Gen [[Stiliyan Kovachev]]. The offensive at [[Chataldja]] failed, too. On 11 March the final Bulgarian [[Battle of Adrianople (1913)|assault on Adrianople]] began. Under the command of Gen. [[Georgi Vazov]] the Bulgarians, reinforced with two Serb divisions, conquered the "untakeable" city. On 17/30 May a peace treaty was signed between Turkey and the Balkan Alliance. The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912-May 1913, strengthened Bulgaria's position as a regional military power, significantly reduced Ottoman influence over the Balkans and resulted in the formation of an independent Albanian state.

===Second Balkan War===
{{main|Second Balkan War}}
The peace settlement of the First Balkan War proved unsatisfactory for both Serbia and Bulgaria. Serbia refused to cede a part of the territories in Macedonia, which it occupied and promised to give to Bulgaria according to a secret agreement. Serbia, on its side, was not satisfied with the independence of Albania and sought a secret alliance with Greece. Armed skirmishes between Serbian and Bulgarian troops occurred.

On 16 June 1913, just a few months after the end of the first war, the Bulgarian government ordered an attack on Serbian and Greek positions in Macedonia, without declaring war. Almost all of Bulgaria's 500,000-man standing army was positioned against these two countries, on two fronts—western and southern—while the borders with Romania and the [[Ottoman Empire]] were left almost unguarded. Montenegro sent a 12,000-strong force to assist the Serbs. Exhausted from the previous war, which took the highest toll on Bulgaria, the Bulgarian army soon turned to the defensive. Romania attacked from the north and northeast and the Ottoman Empire also intervened in [[Thrace]]. Allied numerical superiority was almost 2:1. After a month and two days of fighting, the war ended as a moral disaster for Bulgaria, and at the same time its economy was ruined and its military demoralised.

===First World War===
{{main|Bulgaria during World War I}}
[[File:Nikola Todorov Zhekov.jpg|thumb|170px|Gen. [[Nikola Zhekov]], Commander-in-Chief of the Bulgarian Army during World War I]]
The [[Kingdom of Bulgaria]] participated in World War I on the side of the [[Central Powers]] between 15 October 1915, when the country declared war on [[Kingdom of Serbia|Serbia]], and 29 September 1918, when the [[Armistice with Bulgaria|Armistice of Thessalonica]] was signed. In the aftermath of the [[Balkan Wars]], Bulgarian opinion turned against Russia and the western powers, whom the Bulgarians felt had done nothing to help them. The government of [[Vasil Radoslavov]] aligned the country with [[German Empire|Germany]] and [[Austria-Hungary]], even though this meant also becoming an ally of the Ottomans, Bulgaria's traditional enemy. However, Bulgaria now had no claims against the Ottomans, whereas Serbia, Greece and Romania (allies of Britain and France) were all in possession of lands perceived in Bulgaria as its own.

In 1915 Germany promised to restore the boundaries according to the [[Treaty of San Stefano]] and Bulgaria, which had the largest army in the Balkans, declared war on Serbia in October of that year. In the First World War Bulgaria decisively asserted its military capabilities. The [[Battle of Doiran (1917)|second Battle of Doiran]], with Gen. [[Vladimir Vazov]] as commander, inflicted a heavy blow on the numerically superior [[British army]], which suffered 12,000 casualties against 2,000 from the opposite side. One year later, during the [[Battle of Doiran (1918)|third battle of Doiran]], the United Kingdom, supported by Greece, once again suffered a humiliating defeat, losing 3,155 men against just about 500 on the Bulgarian side. The reputation of the [[French army]] also suffered badly. The [[Battle of the Red Wall]] was marked by the total defeat of the French forces, with 5,700 out of 6,000 men killed. The 261 Frenchmen who survived were captured by Bulgarian soldiers.

Despite the outstanding victories, Germany was near defeat, which meant that Bulgaria would be left without its most powerful ally. The [[February Revolution|Russian Revolution]] of February 1917 had a great effect in Bulgaria, spreading antiwar and anti-monarchist sentiment among the troops and in the cities. In June Radoslavov's government resigned. In 1919 Bulgaria officially left the war with the [[Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine]].

===The army between the World Wars===
[[File:Fiat Ansaldo.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Bulgarian [[L3/33|CV-33]] tankettes, early 1930s]]
The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine proved to be a severe blow to Bulgaria's military. According to the treaty, the country had no right to organize a [[conscription]]-based military. The professional army was to be no more than 20,000 men, including 10,000 internal forces and 3,000 border guards. Equipping the army with tanks, submarines, bombers and heavy artillery was strictly prohibited, although Bulgaria managed to get around some of these prohibitions. Nevertheless, on the eve of World War II the Bulgarian army was still well-trained and well-equipped. In fact, the Bulgarian Army had been expanded in 1935.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thomas|first=Nigel|title=Axis Forces in Yugoslavia 1941-1945|publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]]|year=1995|isbn=9781855324732|series=Men-at-Arms|pages=23}}</ref>

===World War II===
{{main|Bulgaria during World War II}}

The government of the [[Kingdom of Bulgaria]] under Prime Minister [[Bogdan Filov]] declared a position of neutrality upon the outbreak of World War II. Bulgaria was determined to observe it until the end of the war but it hoped for bloodless territorial gains, especially in the lands with a significant Bulgarian population occupied by neighbouring countries after the [[Second Balkan War]] and World War I. However, it was clear that the central geopolitical position of Bulgaria in the Balkans would inevitably lead to strong external pressure by both World War II factions. Turkey had a [[non-aggression pact]] with Bulgaria. On 7 September 1940 Bulgaria succeeded in negotiating a recovery of [[Southern Dobruja]] with the [[Treaty of Craiova]] (see [[Second Vienna Award]]). Southern Dobruja had been part of Romania since 1913. This recovery of territory reinforced hopes for resolving other territorial problems without direct involvement in the war. The country joined the [[Axis Powers]] in 1941, when [[Nazi Germany|German]] troops preparing to invade [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] and Greece reached the Bulgarian borders and demanded permission to pass through its territory.

[[File:376bombgroup-bulgaria-01-jun-1944.gif|thumb|right|The [[Bombing of Sofia in World War II]], 1944]]

On 1 March 1941, Bulgaria signed the [[Tripartite Pact]] and officially joined the Axis bloc. After a short period of inaction, the army launched an operation against [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] and Greece. The goal of reaching the shores of the [[Aegean Sea]] and completely occupying the region of Macedonia was successful. Even though Bulgaria did not send any troops to support the [[Operation Barbarossa|German invasion of the Soviet Union]], its navy was involved in a number of skirmishes with the [[Soviet Black Sea Fleet]], which attacked Bulgarian shipping. Besides this, Bulgarian Armed Forces garrisoned in the Balkans battled various resistance groups. The Bulgarian government declared a token war on the United Kingdom and the United States near the end of 1941, an act that resulted in the [[Bombing of Sofia in World War II|bombing of Sofia]] and other Bulgarian cities by [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] aircraft.

Some communist activists managed to begin a guerrilla movement, headed by the underground [[Bulgarian Communist Party]]. A resistance movement called [[Fatherland Front (Bulgaria)|Otechestven front]] (Fatherland front, Bulgarian: Отечествен фронт) was set up in August 1942 by the Communist Party, the [[Zveno]] movement and a number of other parties to oppose the elected government, after a number of Allied victories indicated that the Axis might lose the War. In 1943 Tsar [[Boris III]] died suddenly. In the summer of 1944, after having crushed the Nazi defense around [[Iaşi]] and [[Chişinău]], the [[Soviet Army]] was approaching the Balkans and Bulgaria. On 23 August 1944 Romania quit the Axis Powers, declared war on Germany and allowed Soviet forces to cross its territory to reach Bulgaria. On 26 August 1944 the Fatherland Front made the decision to incite an armed rebellion against the government, which led to the appointment of a new government on 2 September. Support for the government was withheld by the Fatherland Front, since it was composed of pro-Nazi elements, in a desperate attempt to hold on to power. On 5 September 1944 the Soviet Union declared war and invaded Bulgaria.<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+bg0054] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015203636/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+bg0054|date=15 October 2017}}</ref> On 8 September 1944 the Bulgarian army joined the Soviet Union in its war against Germany.

===Cold War era===
As the [[Red Army]] invaded Bulgaria in 1944<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-1832.html|title=Bulgaria - Table A. Chronology of Important Events|website=Country-data.com|access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref> and installed a communist government, the armed forces were rapidly forced to reorganise following the Soviet model, and were renamed the [[Bulgarian People's Army]] (''Bohlgarska Narodna Armija, BNA''). Moscow quickly supplied Bulgaria with [[T-34-85]] tanks, [[SU-100]] guns, [[Il-2]] attack planes and other new combat machinery. As the country was a Soviet satellite, it was a part of the [[Eastern Bloc]] and entered the [[Warsaw Pact]] as one of its founders. By this time the army had expanded to over 200,000 men with hundreds of thousands of more reserve troops. Military service was obligatory. A special [[defensive line]], known as the [[Krali Marko defensive line]], was constructed along the entire border with Turkey. It was heavily fortified with concrete walls and turrets of T-34, [[Panzer III]] and [[Panzer IV]] tanks.

The army was involved in a number of border skirmishes from 1948 to 1952, repulsing several Greek attacks,<ref>Петър Жеков – „Героят от неизвестната война“, в-к „Отбрана“, 14 декември 2010 г.</ref> and took part in the suppression of the [[Prague Spring]] events. In the meantime, during the rule of [[Todor Zhivkov]], a significant military-industrial complex was established, capable of producing armored vehicles, self-propelled artillery, small arms and ammunition, as well as aircraft engines and spare parts. Bulgaria provided weapons and military expertise to Algeria, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Nicaragua, Egypt and Syria. Some military and medical aid was also supplied to North Korea and [[North Vietnam]] in the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1970s the Air Force was at the apogee of its power, possessing at least 500 modern combat aircraft in its inventory. Training in the Bulgarian People's Army was exhaustive even by Soviet standards; however, it was never seen as a major force within the Warsaw Pact.<ref>[http://www.nationalcoldwarexhibition.org/explore/cold-war-country-information.cfm?country=Bulgaria&topic=Army Bulgaria – Army], Nationalcoldwarexhibition.org</ref> In 1989, when the [[Cold War]] was coming to its end, the army (the combined number of ground, air and naval forces) numbered about 120,000 men, most of them conscripts. There were, however, several services which, while falling outside of Ministry of Defense jurisdiction in peacetime, were considered part of the armed forces. These were foremost the Labour Troops (construction forces), the [[Militsiya|People's Militia]] (the police forces of the country, which fell under Ministry of the Interior jurisdiction, but the ministry was itself a militarized structure) and, more importantly, its Interior Troops, the Border Troops—which in different periods fell under either Ministry of Defense or Ministry of the Interior control—Civil Defense Service, the Signals Troops (government communications) and the Transport Troops (mostly railway infrastructure maintenance), which were two separate services under the Postal and Communications Committee (a ministry), etc. The combined strength of the Bulgarian People's Army and all those services reached well over 325,000 troops.

=== From 1990 ===
[[File:SF - dismounted patrol.JPG|thumb|right|A Land Forces dismounted patrol in Afghanistan, January 2011]]

With the collapse of the [[Warsaw Pact]] & the end of the [[Cold War]], Bulgaria could no longer support a vast military. A rapid reduction in personnel & active equipment was to be carried out in parallel with a general re-alignment of strategic interests. In 1990, Bulgaria had a total of more than 2,400 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles, 2,500 large caliber artillery systems,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+bg0208)|title=Ground Forces|website=Lcweb2.loc.gov|access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref> 300 fighter & bomber aircraft, 100 trainer aircraft, more than 40 combat & 40 transport helicopters,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+bg0209)|title=Air and Air Defense Forces|website=Lcweb2.loc.gov|access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref> 4 submarines, 6 fast missile craft, 2 frigates, 5 corvettes, 6 torpedo boats, 9 patrol craft, 30 minesweepers, and 21 transport vessels.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+bg0210)|title=Naval Forces|website=Lcweb2.loc.gov|access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref> Due to the economic crisis that affected most former Eastern bloc countries, a steady reform in the military could not be carried out; much of the equipment fell into disrepair and some of it was smuggled and sold to the international black market. Inadequate payments, fuel & spare part shortages and the disbandment of many capable units led to an overall drop in combat readiness, morale & discipline.

After partially recovering from the 1990s crisis, the Bulgarian military became a part of [[NATO]]. Even before that, Bulgaria sent a total of 485 soldiers to Iraq (2003–2008) as a participant in the [[Iraq War]] and maintained a 608-men strong force in Afghanistan as part of [[ISAF]]. Bulgaria had a significant missile arsenal, including 67 [[SCUD|SCUD-B]], 50 [[FROG-7]] & 24 [[SS-23]] ballistic missiles.<ref name="SN">[http://www.standartnews.com/archive/2002/08/12/interview/s3453_2.htm StandartNews.com "Никой не разбра, че горихме ракети през 1973 г. (in Bulgarian)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403211354/http://www.standartnews.com/archive/2002/08/12/interview/s3453_2.htm |date=3 April 2008 }}</ref> In 2002, Bulgaria disbanded the [[Bulgarian Rocket Forces|Rocket Forces]] despite nationwide protests and has disbanded its submarine component. Bulgaria is to have 27,000 standing troops by 2014, consisting of 14,310 troops in the land forces, 6,750 in the air force, 3,510 in the navy, and 2,420 in the joint command.<ref>White Paper, p.30</ref> In 2018, the Bulgarian Armed Forces numbered around 33,150 soldiers, 73 aircraft, 2234 vehicles, including 531 tanks, and 29 naval assets.