Bulgaria has expressed interest in acquiring French CAESAR howitzers, which could be implemented as part of the European EDIRPA program. They would replace the tracked 2S1 Gvozdika howitzers.
The information about the possible purchase of the French export hit by the Bulgarians comes from the local Minister of Defense Atanas Zapryanov.
The Cezary howitzers would replace the 2S1 Gvozdika tracked howitzers used so far, of which about 48 are to be in service (plus an additional pool of vehicles is to be in the equipment reserve, although some of them have been delivered to Ukraine).
It is not known how many French-made howitzers the Bulgarians will decide on, as they have very limited capabilities in terms of barrel artillery.
The potential purchase of French artillery is another step aimed at modernizing the equipment used by the Bulgarian army. Examples of this include, m.in, the acquisition of 198 American Stryker wheeled armored personnel carriers in several variants, or the German IRIS-T SLM air defense system (probably one battery).
The second purchase is carried out as part of the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI). Bulgaria intends to increase its military spending, which is to be increased to 2.5% of GDP within three years.
Author. KNDS France
CAESAR (Camion Équipé d’un Système d’Artillerie) is a French wheeled self-propelled howitzer produced by KNDS Nexter (formerly Nexter Group). It is suitable for mounting on the chassis of various trucks in a 6×6 or 8×8 arrangement according to customer requirements.
The most commonly used carriers are the Renault Sherpa 5, Mercedes-Benz Unimog (both 6×6) and Tatra 815-7 (8×8). CAESAR has a 155 mm main armament with an L/52 barrel (approx. 8 meters long), the maximum range of which is over 40 km when firing high-explosive projectiles with a bottom gas generator.
CAESAR uses a wide range of JBMoU-compatible ammunition, including the classic HE and BONUS armor-piercing ammunition and the new 155mm Katana guided missiles.
The ammunition supply in the French variant, based on the Renault (Arquus) chassis with 6×6 drive, is 18 rounds with propelling charges. So far, more than 300 units of this system have been built. It was used by the Armed Forces of France, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Estonia, Morocco, Indonesia and Ukraine.
In the near future, it will enter service in Belgium, Portugal, Slovenia, Armenia, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. Denmark has abandoned the use of this system, transferring all 19 units from its own armed forces to Ukraine.
Author. Direction générale de l’armement