Bulgaria, US Launch Joint Spring Military Training

General Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, works with his computer inside a C-130 Hercules airplane on the way to Kabul. The airplane will be used to train Bulgarian pilots. Photo by BGNES

The joint Bulgarian-American military training “Thracian Spring 2010” began Monday in the regions of Plovdiv and Yambol, the Defense Ministry informs.

The training will conclude on April 30.

The Bulgarian armed forces are represented by the Air Forces, the Special Operation Forces, the Land Forces and the Navy. The American side includes servicemen from the US Air Forces in Europe and their military cargo aircraft C-130 Hercules.

The training includes day and night parachute jumps from the C-130 Hercules with the participation of Bulgarian paratroopers. Bulgarian pilots will receive training with real marking of air targets.

During “Thracian Spring 2010” regiments from he Land and Air Forces, and the Navy will be trained to take part in military missions with the goal to align different armed forces operations in international environment.

On April 14, the Council of Ministers published a report showing that Bulgaria maintains one of the largest and most costly for the taxpayers' armies in the EU while obsolete equipment places the armed forces far behind other NATO members and creates obstacles for their compliance with the Alliance.