Outline of the Bulgarian People's Army at the end of the Cold War

The following is a hierarchical outline for the Bulgarian People's Army at the end of the Cold War. It is intended to convey the connections and relationships between units and formations. At the end of the Cold War in 1989, the Bulgarian People's Army (BPA) reported to the Ministry of People's Defence (Bulgaria). The BPA included the Bulgarian Land Forces; the Air and Air Defence Forces; Navy; and Construction Troops.

The Interior Ministry supervised the Border Troops, Interior Troops, Transport Troops, and Communications Troops.

War Planning In case of war the Bulgarian People's Army's Land Forces Command would have formed the 1st Balkan Front with multiple Bulgarian armies and wartime reinforcements. Two Bulgarian armies, four to six motorized rifle divisions and three tank brigades, the CIA estimated in 1979, would be assigned to this Front (page 149/201). Additional Soviet units would also come under its command (particularly 10th Army of the Soviet Union (10th Guards Budapest Rifle Corps?, which later became the 14th Guards Army),Nb. in the late 1940s the 37th Army (Soviet Union), in Bulgaria became the 10th Mechanized Army for a period before disbandment in June 1947. planned to deploy between the fifth and tenth day after a full mobilization in the area between Silistra, Tolbukhin, Varna and Omurtag).

According to Lieutenant-General Hristo Hristov (former Chief of the Land Forces and Chief of the Georgi Rakovski Military Academy): "For that purpose the Land Forces Command was formed in 1973. Its first chief was Colonel-General Hristo Dobrev, with the rank of Deputy Minister of People's Defence. At a conference about the organization of the armed forces in 2003 he has formulated the need for the formation of the Land Forces Command as such: "It is well known, that according to the operational plans of the Supreme Headquarters of the Warsaw Pact Organization our country was supposed to form a frontal Operational-Strategical Formation (фронтово оперативно-стратегическо обединение), mainly including the Bulgarian People's Army with the mission in case of an aggression launched against the People's Republic of Bulgaria to mount defensive action on the southern state border in order to secure the deployment on Bulgarian soil of additionally one Soviet and one Romanian front. ..Our Land Forces at the moment [the 1970s] numbered around 60-62 000 men, the exercises were constant. Each division executed annually one winter and one summer exercise in full strength. The three army headquarters - one command exercise under the leadership of the respective army commander and one command exercise under the leadership of the Land Forces Main Staff annually. The massive exercises of the Land Forces, normally during the summers normally included an army headquarters from the Soviet Army and occasionally an army headquarters from the Romanian Army. On the Balkan operational direction our armed forces were planned to cooperate with them."

After which with the support of the Soviet Strategic Missile Troops the three fronts were, with the support of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet [which at that point would have absorbed the Bulgarian and the Romanian Navies] to launch a strategic operation aimed at the total destruction of the aggressor... Our men were excellent trained.

The Ministry for People's Defence (Министерство на Народната Отбрана (МНО)) had the following structure:

Minister of People's Defence (Министър на народната отбрана)

Command and Office of the Minister of People's Defence (Командване с кабинет на министъра на народната отбрана) Management Council (Колегиум) Financial Department (Финансов отдел) Control and Revision Directorate (Контролно-ревизионно управление) Rear [Services] of the Bulgarian People's Army (Тил на БНА), headed by a Deputy Minister for People's Defence Rear [Services] HQ (Щаб на тила) Equipment Directorate (Вещево управление) Proviant Directorate (Продоволствено управление) Fuel and Lubricants Directorate (Управление ГСМ) Medical Directorate (Медицинско управление) Transportation Directorate (Транспортно управление) Political Department (Политотдел) Housing Exploitation Department (Квартирно-експ. отдел) Economic Planning Department (Планово-икономически отдел) Political Department (Политотдел), all the Political Departments were subordinated to the Main Political Directorate of the People's Army. The Rear [Services], the Main Directorate for Armament and Equipment and the General Staff were each headed by a Deputy Minister of People's Defence and each had its own political department. This particular one was responsible for the Ministry's departments subordinated directly to the Minister. Military Legal Establishments Department (Отдел Военносъдебни учреждения) Main Political Directorate of the People's Army (Главно политическо управление на народната армия (ГлПУНА)), had the dual status of a directorate of the Ministry of People's Defence and a Department of the Bulgarian Communist Party's Central Committee Inspectorate of the Ministry of People's Defence (Инспекторат на МНО) Cadre [Human Resources] Directorate (Управление кадри) Main Directorate for Armament and Equipment (Главно управление на въоръжението и техниката (ГУВТ)), headed by a Deputy Minister for People's Defence Scientific Technological Directorate (Научно-техн. управление) Automotive and Armored Vehicles Directorate (Управление авто- и бронетанкова техника (АБТТ)) Rocket and Artillery Armament and Radar Equipment Directorate (Управление ракетно и артилерийско въоръжение и радиолокационна техника (Управление РАВ и РЛТ)) Delivery Planning Directorate (Управление Планиране на доставките) Military Repair Plants and Armament Manufacturing Factories Directorate (Управление Военно-ремонтни бази и заводи) Political Department (Политотдел) Technical Organization Department (Организационно-технически отдел) Civil Protection HQ (Щаб на гражданската отбрана) Engineer Troops Directorate (Управление инженерни войски) Chemical Troops Directorate (Управление химически войски)

General Staff of the Bulgarian People's Army (Генерален щаб на Българската народна армия (ГЩ на БНА)), headed by the First Deputy Minister for People's Defence, the General Staff was a separate structure from the Ministry of People's Defence

Operations Directorate (Оперативно управление) Intelligence Directorate (Разузнавателно управление) Signals Troops Directorate (Управление свързочни войски) Organization and Mobilization Directorate (Организационно-мобилизационно управление) Mobilization Planning Directorate (Мобилизационно-планово управление) Political Department (Политотдел) Military Scientific Sector (Военно-научен сектор) Mechanization and Automatization of the Command and Control of the Troops Department (Механизация и автоматизация на упр. на войските) Department for the Safeguarding of State and Operational Secrets (Опазване на държавната и служебната тайна) Electronic Warfare Department (Радиоелектронна борба) Preparation of the State for Defence Department (Подготовка на страната за отбрана) Military Topographical Department (Военнотопографски отдел) Air Defence Sector (Сектор ПВО) Naval Department (Отдел ВМФ) International Military Liaison Department (Отдел международни връзки)

1st Balkan Front The headquarters of the 1st Balkan Front had direct command of the following units:

Frontal Command, Sofia Directly Subordinated Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff: 68th Independent Parachute-Reconnaissance Regiment (Plovdiv, an equivalent of the Soviet GRU-Spetsnaz, the Intelligence Directorate even had a "Spetsnaz"-Department with that exact name and the responsibility for combat readiness and mission planning of the Specnaz units). The regiment was formed on October 1, 1975, by bringing together the battalion-sized 68th (in Plovdiv) and 86th Training Parachute-Reconnaissance Base (in Musachevo village, immediately to the east of Sofia. The bases, called "Training" (Учебна Парашутно-Разузнавателна База - Резерв на Главното Командване (УПРБ-РГК)) for maskirovka were special mission units, directly subordinated to the General Staff with the capabilities to execute covert intelligence gathering and direct actions deep in the enemy rear of the two NATO adversaries in the region - Greece and Turkey respectively. Each of the bases was composed of a Command; Staff and Staff Services; 3 Para-Recon Companies of 6 Para-Recon Groups each (composed of 7 people: a commanding officer, a master sergeant executive commander, a radiotelegraphist, a senior intelligence gatherer, an intelligence gatherer, an intelligence gatherer/ grenadier and a military interpreter); a Training Company, a Signals Company and diverse support and supply units. The newly formed 68th IPRR included a Command; Staff and Staff Services; 3 x Para-Recon Battalions; Diversionary-Reconnaissance Detachment (reinforced company, specialised in direct actions, upgraded to a full battalion in 1989); Training Battalion; Signals Battalion and support and supply units. The full compliance to Soviet GRU-Spetsnaz standards since the formation of the regiment is also noted in the specification of the Para-Recon Groups, which were renamed Spetsnaz-Reconnaissance Groups (Разузнавателни Групи със Специално Назначение (РГСН))."The Bulgarian Special Forces", by Plamen Grigorov, Rasper Publishing House, Sofia 2002 ("Българските спецсили", Пламен Григоров), The regiment is the forerunner of the modern 68th Special Forces Brigade. 81st (?). Independent Brigade for Radio-intercept and Radio-technical Reconnaissance OSNAZ (81-ва (?). Отделната Бригада за Радио и Радиотехническо Разузнаване ОСНАЗ) in Musachevo, just to the east of Sofia (the ELINT and Radio Interception units of the BPA were called OSNAZ from the Russian ОСобое НАЗначение (roughly translated as "of specific purpose"), Electronic Warfare, such as the N, S and NS type units were called SPETSNAZ (same as the special forces units) from the Russian СПЕЦиальное НАЗначение (translated as "of special purpose")) Directorate for Signals and Electronics of the General Staff: 62nd Signals Brigade, in Gorna MalinaMichael Holm, Army Command/Frontal Command - with the escalation in the nuclear armament of NATO and the Warsaw Pact a plan was devised by the Bulgarian government, that in the case of a full-sized conflict, to retain command and control, the higher echelon of the Bulgarian Communist Party and the senior military command was to be divided in three groups and evacuated to nuclear blast-protected bunkers in the Bulgarian mountains. Next to the functions of the Signals Regiment in the Sofia suburb of Suhodol, the brigade also had the functions of maintaining the higher military communication lines. For that reason the 62nd Brigade had at least three dispersed signals regiments for government communications, such as the 75th Signals Regiment (Lovech), the 65th Signals Regiment (Nova Zagora) and at least one additional unknown Signals Regiment in the Rila-Pirin mountain massif. The modern successor of the 62nd Signals Brigade are the Stationary Communication and Information System (Стационарна Комуникационна Информационна Система (СКИС)) of the Defence Staff (which fulfills also the tasks of SIGINT and Cyber Defence next to its strategic communications mission) and the Mobile Communication and Information System (Мобилна Комуникационна Информационна Система (МКИС)) of the Joint Forces Command.JFC Intervyuta Electronic Warfare Department (Отдел за Радиоелектронна Борба към Генералния Щаб (ОРЕБ-ГЩ)) (a General Staff department, headed by a Colonel) Stationary Battalion for Radiojamming (Стационарен Батальон за Радиосмущения)