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.

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.