July 19 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's parliament approved an updated project for acquisition of two patrol ships for the country's Navy, lifting the estimated cost of the purchase to 984 million levs ($584.1 million/503.1 million euro), public TV BNT reported on Thursday.
The two vessels shall be equipped with basic armaments, keeping the option for including additional equipment depending on the financial parameters of the deal, BNT said.
The initially announced cost of the project for acquisition of two multi-functional modular patrol ships for the needs of the Bulgarian Navy was 820 million levs. The additional 164 million levs shall be steered towards the country's 2025 and 2026 budgets, the government said last month.
The project aims to replace part of NATO member Bulgaria's Russian-made naval patrol vessels which cannot be modernised. The project also envisages carrying out all necessary training, supply of spare parts, as well as integrated logistics support for a period of three years, the government said at the time.
In 2017, Bulgaria launched a tender for construction of two multi-functional modular patrol ships. In November, the defence ministry said that local shipyard MTG Dolphin was selected to do the job. In December, however, MTG Dolphin withdrew from negotiations with the government due to a cut in the maximum financing allocated to the project.
Also in June, Bulgaria's parliament approved the expenses related to the planned acquisition of 16 fighter jets in two stages and 150 armoured vehicles.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)