Bulgaria wants to purchase French wheeled CAESAR self-propelled guns (155mm) to replace the aging Soviet 2S1 Gvozdika systems (122mm), using the European Union's EDIPRA joint defense procurement instrument. Simultaneously, Sofia intends to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP precisely through signing more equipment acquisition contracts in the next three years.
The specifics of the project are explained in a post by Euractiv, and Defense Express adds that the background of this effort serves as a stark illustration of why the EU is in no hurry to form a single armed force and that the nations of this continent still need external incentives to commit to meaningful financial investments in their defense.
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Presently, the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense has not publicly announced the number of CAESAR guns it would like to purchase, the estimated order value, or, most importantly, the deadlines for the receipt of the new artillery systems to replace the Gvozdika guns. But there is a specific emphasis on Bulgaria's interest to attract external financing for this procurement.
The Military Balance 2024 study indicates that last year, Bulgaria had a planned defense budget equivalent to USD 2.21 billion (3.95 billion Bulgarian leva), with the country's total GDP equivalent to 110 billion dollars (or 197 billion leva).
Based on these data, Bulgaria's military expenditure currently amounts to 2% of GDP, and by 2027 the spending figure should formally rise to the equivalent of $2.6 billion. While these figures describe the trend quantitatively, the qualitative indicators are a different question. Simply put, what exactly this increased defense spending is being spent on.
The Bulgarian Army had 48 2S1 Gvozdika (122mm) and 24 towed D-20 (152mm) howitzers in active service as of early 2024. The number of CAESARs ordered is important in this context as a gauge of how far the Bulgarian Defense Ministry is willing to go in upgrading its artillery fleet, and it remains uncertain for now.
In addition, Bulgaria has already used the EDIPRA program before to obtain €180 million to finance the acquisition of German IRIS-T SLM air defense systems to replace the Soviet S-300. Therefore, the amount of funds it will be able to receive for Caesars may be limited.
Bulgaria's efforts raise more general questions, such as whether individual European nations are really ready for a deep defense integration, including the formation of a joint army, considering some of them still use obsolete Warsaw Pact–era equipment and are still only preparing to transition to modern Western systems. Another concern is how the European Union can incentivize its members for a substantive raise of defense budgets.
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