Bad choice. Belgian F-16’s, even the ones which were recently placed in storage, are near the end of their service life. If Bulgaria wants used F-16’s, it would make more sense to go for American F-16’s, they should be able to find many which were flown much less than Belgian ones.
The Belgian F-16s which are stored at Weelde are not at the end of their service life, but they were declared surplus after the Cold War. True, they are the oldest aircraft in the inventory, but they each have lower flying hours than the now operational F-16s. A few of the (recently) stored F-16s have received the MLU upgrade, which means they have the capabilities of Block 50/52. However, most of the stored F-16s have received only the Carapace upgrade, but not the MLU upgrade. Remember, the Belgian F-16s were the second choice of the Czech Air Force, while the US F-16As and F-16Bs were the less preferred Czech choice… The first choice of the Czechs were new JAS-39 Gripens…
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