Bulgaria signed on October 30 to join NATO’s Air Defence Capabilities Against Lower-Level Air Threats High Visibility Project, a multinational program for buying and developing defenses against drones and cruise missiles that fly low. Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov signed the accession note, and the National Assembly still has to ratify it.

Bulgaria’s share of the bill is €220,000 a year. Until mid-October, the Bulgarian defense ministry was still working out whether it could afford that.

NATO’s Project Targets Drones, Cruise Missiles and Glide Bombs Below 150 Meters

The project covers aerial threats flying below 150 meters (about 490 feet), including drones, cruise missiles and glide bombs. It runs for three years. Bulgaria joins through a memorandum of cooperation signed by the defense ministers of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Romania, Sweden and Türkiye, according to BTA.

NATO set the initiative up at a February 2025 meeting of defense ministers, and the first participants signed at the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum in July, during the Ankara summit, NATO said in its announcement. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) will run a market survey and build a catalog of systems the members can buy jointly or develop together, and Bulgarian companies can put their own products forward, Novinite reported. Romania is on the member list for reasons Bulgaria now shares: in May a Russian Geran-2 drone hit an apartment block in Galați and injured two residents.

The project is separate from NATO’s Drone Edge initiative, where Bulgaria has committed €80 million through the EU’s SAFE mechanism for 20 counter-drone systems, 10 mobile and 10 stationary, Novinite reported.

Bulgaria Said It Could Afford the Fee a Day After the Second Sinking

Stoyanov told parliament on October 14 that the ministry could afford the €220,000 fee, one day after drones sank the Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity off Krapets, near the Romanian border, with 11 crew still missing. Another cargo ship had sunk in the same waters a week earlier.

His words, as BNR reported them: “We can afford this amount.” In September he had told lawmakers the initiative would stretch the defense budget and duplicate an EU project, Unmanned Airspace reported.

The October 6 ship went down with nine Syrian sailors and one Egyptian lost, and drones hit a second ship that day. On October 13 three drones also struck the Maltese-flagged Chelsea-3, whose crew of seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis was rescued, Reuters reported. Sofia summoned Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova. Bulgaria has not formally blamed Moscow, though Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the outcome benefits Russia. On October 16 Stoyanov said Bulgaria had written to NATO’s Secretary General and Supreme Allied Commander asking for counter-drone systems and patrol aircraft, BTA reported.

The gap was visible before the sinkings. On August 8 a drone the defense ministry identified as a Maya decoy exploded about 100 meters (330 feet) inside Bulgaria near the former Kardam border checkpoint, roughly 1,000 meters from a gas compressor station, BTA reported. The ministry said the type is widely used by Ukraine’s armed forces and that nothing pointed to a deliberate attack. Nine days later Bulgaria took delivery of its first two counter-drone systems, bought from US company Axon, which agreed to buy counter-drone firm Dedrone in 2024. Two more were due shortly, and the first pair still had to be put into service.

DroneXL’s Take

I have no problem with a defense ministry checking a bill. My problem is that a NATO country with a Black Sea coastline still called this project a budget strain in September, a month after a decoy drone blew up 100 meters inside its border. The signature puts Bulgaria into a procurement process that starts with NSPA market research, and the note still needs a vote in the National Assembly. Nothing in the project flies over Krapets this winter. The counter-drone systems and patrol aircraft Stoyanov asked NATO for could reach the coast far sooner. I’d watch that request, not the €220,000.

Source: NATO, BTA, BNR, Reuters, Novinite, Unmanned Airspace

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.