Every war the Bulgarian Air Force has fought
Bulgaria fought on the side of Germany in both world wars and against Germany from September 1944, and both are recorded. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From Edirne in 1912 to NATO air policing today.
| Conflict | Years | Against | Main aircraft | Sorties | Aircraft lost | |
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| The Balkan WarsEdirne, 1912–1913Bulgarian Army Aeroplane and Balloon Section | 1912–1913 | Ottoman Empire and Serbia, Greece and Romania (Second Balkan War) | Albatros, Blériot XXI, Balloon Sofia-1 | 76 | ||
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Reconnaissance, bombing and balloon observation for the Bulgarian army. Bulgaria went to war in October 1912 with a newly trained group of army pilots and a handful of aircraft ordered abroad that summer. On 15 October Lieutenant Yordan Kazandzhiev took the balloon Sofia-1 to 600 metres for the first aerial observation over Edirne, and on 16 October an Albatros flew the first Bulgarian combat mission near the city. The Ministry of Defence calls that flight the birthday of Bulgarian military aviation, and Bulgarian accounts describe it as the first combat use of an aircraft in Europe; Aeroflight describes it more narrowly as Europe’s first reconnaissance flight in combat. Over the winter Bulgarian crews flew reconnaissance over the besieged fortress and dropped small bombs; English Wikipedia counts 70 combat sorties including 11 bombing raids. The Second Balkan War in the summer of 1913 was short and disastrous for Bulgaria, and its aviators flew only six sorties. Outcome Edirne fell in March 1913; Bulgaria then lost the Second Balkan War. Claims to be the first combat flight or first bombing in Europe are contested: Italian aircraft had flown combat missions in Libya in 1911. The names of the 16 October crew were not confirmed on a source reached for this page. Dates may be given in the Julian or Gregorian calendar in different sources.
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| The First World Warthe Macedonian frontBulgarian Army Aeroplane Section | 1915–1918 | France, United Kingdom, Serbia and Greece | LVG B.II, Otto C.I, Albatros C.IIIand 4 more | 255 | ||
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Reconnaissance and air defence alongside German units on the Macedonian front. Bulgaria joined the Central Powers on 4 October 1915 with a single aeroplane squadron of five aircraft and a balloon squadron. It flew first from Kumanovo in support of the advance into Serbia, then from Belica and Xanthi with German LVGs. The best-remembered action came on 30 September 1916, when a French Farman F.40 of Escadrille 384 bombed Sofia: Captain Marko Parvanov in a Fokker E.III and the German instructor Feldwebel Wagner attacked it and forced it to land, capturing the crew — the Krumovo museum’s calendar records it as the first enemy aircraft shot down by a Bulgarian pilot. Six LFG Roland D.II fighters arrived in June 1917, and on 8 July 1917 Uzunov and Balan shot down a British B.E.2. The navy ran seaplane stations with Friedrichshafen FF.33s on the Black Sea. Numbers stayed tiny: about eleven aircraft in early 1917 and ten in 1918, three of them captured. The last combat mission was flown on 28 September 1918. Outcome Bulgaria signed an armistice on 29 September 1918, the day after its last combat mission. The wording of the 1916 action differs: the air force site describes the Farman as damaged and forced down rather than shot down.
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| The air defence of Bulgariathe bombing of SofiaRoyal Bulgarian Air Force (His Majesty’s Air Troops) | 1943–1944 | United States and United Kingdom | Bf 109G-2 and G-6, Dewoitine D.520, Avia B-534 | |||
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Intercepted US and British bombing raids on Sofia and other cities. The air war reached Bulgaria on 1 August 1943, when B-24s returning from Ploieşti crossed its territory. Ten Bf 109s from Karlovo and fourteen Avia B-534s from Bozhurishte and Vrazhdebna intercepted; Peter Bochev, Chudomir Toplodolski, Stoyan Stoyanov and Hristo Krastev scored their first claims and were decorated by Tsar Boris III, though only two B-24s are recorded as crashing in Bulgaria. From 14 November 1943 the raids on Sofia came in earnest. On 20 December Lieutenant Dimitar Spisarevski, 27, rammed the leading B-24 of a formation with his Bf 109G-2; the bomber broke up and he was killed, and was credited posthumously and promoted captain. On 10 January 1944 the museum records 16 Bf 109s and 23 D.520s in action against 280 American aircraft. On 30 March 1944 some 450 heavy bombers with 150 fighters destroyed about 3,575 buildings. The Bulgarian pilots fought formations many times their size, and their claims were generous; the civilian toll was heavy. Outcome The raids stopped after Bulgaria left the Axis in September 1944; Sofia had been heavily damaged. Victory claims and losses vary widely between sources and are given as ranges. Building and casualty figures come from English Wikipedia’s article on the bombing and were not checked against Bulgarian archives.
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| The campaign against GermanyYugoslavia and Hungary, 1944Bulgarian Air Force | 1944 | Germany | Ju 87 D-5, Bf 109G | 32 | ||
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Ground attack, reconnaissance and transport in support of the Bulgarian army, now fighting on the Soviet side. After the Soviet army entered Bulgaria and the government changed on 9 September 1944, the air force that had fought American bombers weeks earlier was turned against the Wehrmacht retreating from Greece through Macedonia and Serbia. Ju 87 dive bombers, Bf 109 fighters and reconnaissance aircraft attacked German columns, railways and airfields. Aeroflight counts more than 1,200 sorties between 9 September and 7 October; Bulgarian Wikipedia gives 3,744 combat sorties for the first phase at a cost of 32 aircraft and 18 crews, and 4,424 in all. Air combat ended on 2 December 1944, after which Bulgarian aircraft flew transport and liaison for the First Bulgarian Army in Hungary and Austria until the end of the war. Outcome Combat operations ceased on 2 December 1944; the air force then flew transport and liaison for the First Bulgarian Army. Sortie totals differ by a factor of three to four between Aeroflight and Bulgarian Wikipedia, probably because they count different periods and types of mission; the aircraft types listed are those known to be in Bulgarian service and were not confirmed mission by mission.
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| The shoot-down of El Al Flight 402Cold War air defenceBulgarian Air Force (air defence) | 1955 | MiG-15 | 2 | 0 | ||
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Two MiG-15s intercepted and shot down an Israeli airliner that had strayed into Bulgarian airspace. On 27 July 1955 El Al’s Lockheed Constellation 4X-AKC, flying London–Vienna–Istanbul–Tel Aviv, strayed over Bulgaria. Two MiG-15s flown by pilots named in the record as Petrov and Sankiisky were scrambled from Dobroslavtsi on the orders of the deputy commander, General Velichko Georgiev, and shot the airliner down; all 58 aboard died. Bulgaria’s government first said the aircraft had violated its airspace without authorisation; it later apologised, said the pilots had been “too hasty” and agreed to compensate the families. Israel protested that its investigators were kept out of the inquiry and took the case to the International Court of Justice, which found it had no jurisdiction. In the same decade Bulgarian MiG-17PFs shot down seven American reconnaissance balloons. Outcome Bulgaria apologised and agreed to compensation; the International Court of Justice declined jurisdiction over Israel’s case. The pilots’ full names were not confirmed. This was a peacetime incident, not a war, and is listed because it is the air force’s best-known use of force after 1945.
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| NATO and national air policingwith allied helpBulgarian Air Force | 2004– | MiG-29, F-16 Block 70 | 0 | |||
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Keeps fighters on quick reaction alert under NATO’s integrated air defence, with allied jets reinforcing since 2017. Since joining NATO in 2004 Bulgaria has guarded its own airspace, but with too few serviceable fighters it has increasingly shared the task. In 2017, when the defence minister said Bulgarian pilots flew about 40 hours a year, Italian Eurofighters joined the air policing mission. After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine four Spanish Eurofighters with 130 personnel operated from Graf Ignatievo from 11 February to 31 March 2022, followed by four Dutch F-35s from 6 April to 31 May, and USAF F-35s flew a long-range mission to the base. Bulgaria signed cross-border air policing memoranda with Romania and Greece, with Türkiye in February 2024 (ratified on 8 August 2024) and, on 6 August 2026, a trilateral agreement with Romania and Spain. The MiG-29s remain the national alert aircraft: on 30 June 2026 one launched at 13:54 to escort a LOT Airbus squawking a hijack code, handing it to Turkish F-16s, and a drone exploded just inside Bulgaria near the Romanian border on 8 August 2026. Outcome Continuing; MiG-29s still held the alert in 2026. Dates of the Italian deployment and any other allied rotations after 2022 were not confirmed; the list of allies is limited to deployments and agreements found in the sources.
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Nothing matches that search.
Every figure, checked
- Bulgarian Air Force: history – First World WarEntry into the war 4 October 1915; Farman over Sofia 30 September 1916 (Parvanov and Wagner).
- Ministry of Defence: Air Force – history and missionsBalloon team 1903; aeronautical detachment 1906; 16 October 1912 first combat mission, birthday of military aviation.
- Aeroflight: Bulgarian Air Force narrative historyDated history 1906–2000s: Neuilly, 1934 re-establishment, 1943–1944, 1947 treaty cap, 1992 renaming, 1994 base system.
- Museum of Aviation, Krumovo: military aviation calendar15 October 1912 balloon observation; 30 September 1916 Parvanov victory; 8 July 1917; 10 January 1944.
- The Sofia Globe: Defence Ministry confirms death of pilot (10 June 2021)Major Valentin Terziev, 47.
- The Sofia Globe: Italian Air Force to aid in Bulgarian air policing in summer 2017 (23 February 2017)Italian Eurofighters; about 40 flying hours a year for Bulgarian pilots.
- The Sofia Globe: Four Spanish Eurofighters arrive to assist air policing in Bulgaria (11 February 2022)Graf Ignatievo, 11 February–31 March 2022, 130 personnel.
- The Sofia Globe: Dutch Air Force F-35s arrive to help protect Bulgarian air space (6 April 2022)Four F-35s, 6 April–31 May 2022.
- The Sofia Globe: USAF F-35s flew long-range mission to Bulgaria (1 June 2022)From Spangdahlem to Graf Ignatievo.
- The Sofia Globe: Bulgarian MPs approve air policing deal with Türkiye (8 August 2024)Signed in Ankara February 2024; similar memoranda with Romania and Greece.
- The Sofia Globe: Romanian, Bulgarian, Spanish air forces sign air policing agreement (6 August 2026)Trilateral cross-border agreement under NATINAMDS.
- The Sofia Globe: PM Radev – drone exploded in Bulgarian airspace (8 August 2026)Near former Kardam checkpoint; Cougars and Su-25s deployed since 31 July 2026.
- The Sofia Globe: Air Force fighter scrambles to escort civilian Airbus (30 June 2026)MiG-29 from the 3rd Air Base at 13:54; handed to Turkish F-16s.
Figures verified 2026-09-29. Back to the Bulgarian Air Force.