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Bulgarian Land Forces

The Bulgarian Land Forces (Bulgarian: Сухопътни войски на България, romanizedSukhopŭtni voĭski na Bŭlgariya, lit.'Ground Forces of Bulgaria') are the ground warfare branch of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. It is administered by the Ministry of Defence, previously known as the Ministry of War during the Kingdom of Bulgaria. The Land Forces were established in 1878, when they were composed of anti-Ottoman militia (opalchentsi) and were the only branch of the Bulgarian military.

Bulgarian Land Force

1878

17,000 active personnel[1]

Great is our Soldier

Atanas Zapryanov

Major General Deyan Deshkov

The Land Forces were made up of conscripts throughout most of Bulgaria's history. During World War I, it fielded more than one million troops out of Bulgaria's total population of around four million. Two-year conscription was obligatory during Communism (1946–1990), but its term was reduced in the 1990s. Conscription for all branches was terminated in 2008; since then, the Land Forces are a volunteer force. Bulgarian Land Forces troops are deployed on peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.


Since 2004, the Land Forces are in a process of continued restructuring. Under the most recent reform, brigades were reduced to regiments, while several garrisons and brigades were disbanded.

Functions[edit]

The Land Forces are functionally divided into 'Active" and "Reserve Forces". Their main functions include deterrence, defense, peace support and crisis management, humanitarian and rescue missions, as well as social functions within Bulgarian society.


The Active Forces mainly have peacekeeping and defensive duties, and are further divided into Deployment Forces, Immediate Reaction, and Main Defense Forces. The Reserve Forces consists of Enhancement Forces, Territorial Defense Forces, and Training Grounds. They deal with planning and reservist preparation, armaments and equipment storage, training of formations for active forces rotation or increase in personnel.


During peacetime the Land Forces maintain permanent combat and mobilization readiness. They become part of multinational military formations in compliance with international treaties Bulgaria is a Party of, participate in the preparation of the population, the national economy and the maintenance of wartime reserves and the infrastructure of the country for defense.


In times of crisis the Land Forces' main tasks relate to participation in operations countering terrorist activities and defense of strategic facilities (such as nuclear power plants and major industrial facilities), assisting the security forces in preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal armaments traffic and international terrorism. In case of low- and medium-intensity military conflict the Active Forces that are part of the Land Forces participate in carrying out the initial tasks for the defense of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. In case of a military conflict of high intensity the Land Forces, together with the Air Force and the Navy, aim at countering aggression and protection of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.

Motor Rifle Division

MT-LB

Land Forces Command

Stara Zagora

The 61st Mechanised Brigade is earmarked for deployment with the Greek NATO Rapid Deployment Corps for exercises, emergencies and for actions alongside NATO. For that reason the corps has a Bulgarian major-general as a deputy commander. In addition to its training tasks the Specialists Training Center, Sliven, is the storage facility of the operational reserve of 160 T-72M1 tanks and many other armoured vehicles.


The plan for the mechanised brigades is for each of them to have three battalion battlegroups. Although the first three battalion battlegroups are already formed the MoD disclosed very little information about their actual structure. What little is known is, that each of them will have three rifle companies and integral fire and engineer support (including EOD disposal). In addition to that, according to the modular principal of actions the structure is optimised to easily integrate additional supporting units tailored to the actual mission, such as tanks, self-propelled artillery, self-propelled missile air defence units, special forces, heavy engineering, CIMIC etc. Contingency plans envision, that one of the brigades will be fully ready to deploy entirely for operations overseas, while the other, alongside the new Mountain Infantry Regiment, assumes the armed forces' paramount mission of defending the territorial integrity of the country.

Ranks[edit]

Commissioned officer ranks[edit]

The rank insignia of commissioned officers.

Colin Robinson, Ph D. (6 October 2023). . Bulletin of "Carol I" National Defence University. 12 (3): 73–94. doi:10.53477/2284-9378-23-33. ISSN 2284-9378. S2CID 263840467.

"The Bulgarian Land Forces in the Cold War"

Hall, Richard C. (2000). The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913: Prelude to the First World War. Routledge.  0-415-22946-4.

ISBN

Knopp, Guido (2009). Die Wehrmacht – Eine Bilanz (in German). Goldmann.  978-3-442-15561-3.

ISBN

Mazower, Mark (1995). . Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08923-6.

Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44

Miller, Marshall Lee (1975). Bulgaria during the Second World War. Stanford University Press.  978-0-8047-0870-8.

ISBN

Gordon L. Rottman and Ron Volstad (1987). Warsaw Pact Ground Forces. London: Osprey Publishing. (for further reading)

. Ministry of Defence of Bulgaria. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.

"Structure and functions of Bulgarian land forces"

– First Sofia Division is 131 Years Old, November 2014

https://armymedia.bg/archives/14607