The first of 183 Stryker 8×8 armoured fighting vehicles ordered for the Bulgarian Armed Forces debuted at HEMUS 2026 in Plovdiv last week, reports Bob Morrison.
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Built by GDLS-C (General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada) and finished off in-country at a local facility, the Strykers are specifically intended to allow the modernising Bulgarian Land Forces to provide a NATO-standard mechanised infantry brigade with full compatibility to allow enhancement of the Alliance’s forward defensive presence. The initial batch of Canadian-built vehicles arrived in-country for finishing-off in February and less than four months later the first of these have been handed over to the Bulgarian MoD.
I was able to look inside the new vehicle parked outside one of the HEMUS halls, which was so new it had not even had its polythene protective seat covers removed, but I was asked not to photograph the interior because technically it belonged to the Government and not the Contractor. Although almost half of the ordered fleet will be Dragoon ICV (Infantry Carrier Vehicle) variants, this first example (confirmed as being such by a senior GDLS-C executive at HEMUS) has a Protector RWS rather than an MCT-30 turret.
Bulgaria launched its replacement Mechanised Infantry Vehicle procurement programme in 2018 and by 2020 two manufacturers, GDELS (General Dynamics European Land Systems) with the Piranha and Patria with the AMV XP, had been down selected from four bidders. However when bids were opened it was decided that both vehicles exceeded the available budget and no order was subsequently placed. In late 2023 it was decided to procure six variants of the Stryker 8×8, which is a derivative of the Canadian LAV 8×8 which is itself a derivative of the Swiss-built Mowag (now GDELS) Piranha.
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