Bulgaria

the Bulgarian military is responsible for guaranteeing Bulgaria’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, providing support to international peace and security missions, and contributing to national security in peacetime, including such missions as responding to disasters or assisting with border security; the military trains regularly including in multinational exercises with regional partners and with NATO since Bulgaria joined the organization in 2004; it also participates in overseas peacekeeping and other security missions under the EU, NATO, and the UN; in 2022, Bulgaria established and began leading a NATO multinational battlegroup as part of an effort to boost NATO defenses in Eastern Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; in 2021, Bulgaria approved a 10-year defense development program, which included calls for equipment upgrades and procurements, boosts in manpower, organizational reforms, and greater focus on such areas as cyber defense, communications, logistics support, and research and development the Bulgarian military has participated in several significant conflicts since its establishment in 1878, including the Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885), the First Balkan War (1912-13), the Second Balkan War (1913), World War I (1915-1918), and World War II (1941-45); during the Cold War it was one of the Warsaw Pact’s largest militaries with over 150,000 personnel and more than 200 Soviet-made combat aircraft (2025)

160 Kosovo (NATO/KFOR) (2025)

Bulgarian Armed Forces (aka Bulgarian Army): Land Forces, Air Force, Navy Ministry of Interior: General Directorate National Police (GDNP), General Directorate Border Police (GDBP), Special Unit for Combating Terrorism (SOBT) (2025)

note: the GDNP includes the Gendarmerie, a special police force with military status deployed to secure important facilities, buildings and infrastructure, respond to riots, and counter militant threats

18 years of age for voluntary service for men and women (2025)

note: in 2020, Bulgaria announced a program to allow every citizen up to the age of 40 to join the armed forces for 6 months of military service in the voluntary reserve

the military's inventory consists largely of Soviet-era armaments, although in recent years Bulgaria has procured some more modern Western weapons systems in an effort to modernize and achieve NATO interoperability (2025)

approximately 28,000 active duty Armed Forces (2025)

note: in 2021, Bulgaria released a 10-year defense plan which called for an active military strength of 43,000