Amendments to the Defense Act: Raising the Service Age, Protection from Drones, and More

From today, the amendments to the Defense and Armed Forces Act come into effect. The amendments were adopted by the parliament on second reading on October 30th. On November 11th, President Rumen Radev vetoed part of the amendments, and a week later, the MPs rejected the head of state's veto.

The amendments increase the retirement age for military personnel who have not exercised their right to a pension by two years. The age increase applies to all categories of military personnel – from the soldier to the Chief of Defence.

Following the amendments to the law, the use of weapons and/or technical means by the armed forces against unmanned autonomous systems is permitted for the protection and defense of military facilities, military formations, and others.

The changes create an explicit regulation defining the activity of the Supreme Command and provide a definition of the term "deterrence" of military threats. In peacetime, the armed forces perform deterrence tasks in accordance with strategic action plans and operational plans and the allied obligations undertaken in accordance with the concluded international treaties and agreements, the MPs wrote in the law. According to the adopted texts, "deterrence" is a complex of activities carried out in peacetime, aimed at convincing a potential aggressor that the negative consequences and losses from his possible aggressive actions would greatly exceed the possible benefits for him. 

The scope of trainees in professional colleges is expanded with the introduction of the category of "college students" – trained Bulgarian citizens for the acquisition of professional qualifications from the professional field "Military Affairs and Defence" for the needs of the Ministry of Defence and other ministries and departments.   

Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov said at the end of October that the extension of service by two years applies to all categories of military personnel – from the soldier to the Chief of Defence. This measure will allow us to use about 847 military personnel in the next two years, and the understaffing will continue to be filled. Of these, about 159 are officers, 510 are soldiers, officer candidates are 24, and 154 are sergeants, he pointed out. According to him, this norm allows a large part of the military personnel to continue their service.

Veto

In his motives, the head of state pointed out that steps have been taken in the right direction, aimed at improving the synchronization between the competent bodies in the field of defense, as well as creating a regulation regarding the activity of the Supreme Command.

The President also noted the need to improve the regulations regarding the retirement age for military service, to encourage the development of the academic staff, as well as regarding the refinement of the order for the distribution of working hours, for its accounting and compensation, for the use and postponement of leave. However, this should not be done in a way that disadvantages military personnel, the President said at the time.

The current legislative practice of raising the retirement age for military service did not lead to a solution to the problem with the understaffing in the Armed Forces, but also creates preconditions for stagnation in the system, stagnation in the renewal of the command staff and the impossibility of personnel development of the officer corps, the press secretariat of the head of state points out.