y of air defense radar and communications
equipment. Combat aircraft are organized in squadrons, usually with
twelve airplanes each. In 1973 there were six fighter-bomber, twelve
fighter-interceptor, and three reconnaissance squadrons.

The fighter-bomber squadrons use the MiG-17, an aircraft that is
obsolescent but that performs well in a ground support role. About
one-half of the fighter-interceptors are also MiG-17s, but three of the
interceptor squadrons have the newer MiG-21. The only bomber aircraft in
the air forces is the near-obsolete Il-28. The Il-28 squadron has a
reconnaissance role. A few old cargo or passenger planes provide a
minimal transport capability, but there are about forty helicopters that
can perform shorter range personnel and transport functions.

Air defense forces are positioned to provide protection for the
country's periphery as well as for a few cities and air installations.
Ground and naval forces have antiaircraft weapons to defend their own
units. Early warning radars are located mainly along southern and
western borders, and their communications lines are presumably linked
with the Warsaw Pact air defense warning network.

Naval Forces

Naval forces, with only about 7,000 men, constitute less than 5 percent
of the armed forces' personnel strength. They man a variety of vessels,
however, including escort ships, patrol boats, torpedo boats, two
submarines, and miscellaneous supply and service vessels. They also
include a contingent of naval infantry, or marines. Some of the smaller
craft make up a Danube River flotilla. Other than the torpedo- and
missile-carrying patrol boats, the major offensive strength consists of
the submarines, which are Soviet-built W-class medium boats, and about
twenty landing craft. All of the larger vessels built since World War II
have been Soviet built or designed.

Although the naval mission includes tasks confined to the portion of the
Black Sea near Bulgaria's coastline, a few fleet units have joined the
Soviet fleet for maneuvers in the Mediterranean Sea, and the naval cadet
training ship sails any of the high seas. For example, it visited Cuba
on its 1972 summer cruise.

FOREIGN MILITARY RELATIONS

Bulgaria joined the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Romania, and Albania in bilateral treaties of friendship, cooperation,
and mutual assistance during the early post-World War II period and
added another with the German Democratic