Saab has offered to sell its Gripen fighter jets to the Bulgarian Air Force at the price of second-hand US F-16 planes.

Saab International Bulgaria director Daniel Boestad said that Bulgaria would save money without compromising on quality with the Gripen offer, according to novinite.com.

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Boestad said the Gripen fighter jets would lower maintenance costs and require smaller service teams compared with second-hand F-16 planes or the Russian MiG-29, currently in use by the Bulgarian Air Force.

Bulgarian head of defence General Simeon Simeonov recently said that the country needed to buy new multipurpose fighter jets rather than second-hand ones.

The government, however, has made no final decision on the procurement.

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