The Bulgarian Land Forces are one of the service branches of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. Their existence is to be traced back to the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681. In more recent history the Land Forces have played an active role in the Bulgarian participation in the Balkan Wars,World War I and World War II. The Bulgarian Land Forces are scheduled to become fully professional by 1 January 2008, bringing an end to mandatory military service. The Bulgarian Air Force and Naval Forces are already fully professional.
The current Land Forces commander, who took up his post in 2006, is Major General Ivan Kirev Dobrev.
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The Land Forces are functionally divided into Active and Reserve Forces. Their main functions include deterrence, defense, peace support and crisis management, humanitarian and rescue missions, as well as social functions within Bulgarian society.
The Active Forces mainly have peacekeeping and defensive duties, and are further divided into Deployment Forces, Immediate Reaction, and Main Defense Forces. The Reserve Forces consists of Enhancement Forces, Territorial Defense Forces, and Training Grounds. They deal with planning and reservist preparation, armaments and equipment storage, training of formations for active forces rotation or increase in personnel.
During peacetime the Land Forces maintain permanent combat and mobilization readiness. They become part of multinational military formations in compliance with international treaties Bulgaria is a Party of, participate in the preparation of the population, the national economy and the maintenance of wartime reserves and the infrastructure of the country for defense.
In times of crisis the Land Forces' main tasks relate to participation in operations countering terrorist activities and defense of strategic facilities (such as nuclear power plants and major industrial facilities), assisting the security forces in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal armaments traffic and international terrorism.
In case of low- and medium-intensity military conflict the Active Forces that are part of the Land Forces participate in carrying out the initial tasks for the defense of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.
In case of a military conflict of high intensity the Land Forces, together with the Air Force and the Navy, form the defense group of the Bulgarian Army aiming at countering aggression and protection of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.
Traditionally, the Bulgarian Army has relied on large numbers of well-trained infantry. During the Cold War the armed forces were expanded to a number of more than 200 000 men, supported by a very large Air Force, thousands of artillery pieces and anti-tank missiles, tactical ballistic missiles, hundreds of SAMs and AA cannons, and more than 1 500 tanks. All that was needed as a deterrence against its large southern NATO-member neighbour - Turkey, and to a lesser degree, Greece. In case of a conflict with NATO, Bulgaria was to use its anti-aircraft missiles and ATGMs to effectively destroy most of the enemy armor and aircraft, while the tanks and jet fighters were to combat the enemy units until back-up forces from the USSR arrived. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union Bulgaria's army has been reduced significantly in terms of numbers, but the number of defensive equipment (ATGMs and SAMs) has not been reduced drastically.
The Land Forces in peacetime used to consist of an HQ, Operational Forces Command, two Commands (East and West), Special Operations Forces Command and directly subordinate to the HQ units and formations.
All these commands were deactivated in 2006.
Commander of the Land Forces
The plans state that 53% of the manpower of the bulgarian military should be in the Land Forces, which according to the level of 26,000 servicemen envisioned calls for about 13,800 soldiers.
Note: This table represents active equipment only; there are large numbers of equipment in reserve status. They are not listed here.
| Statistics | |
| Personnel | 18,000 |
| Main Battle Tanks | 160 T-72 |
| Infantry fighting vehicles | 114 BMP-23/A; 100 BMP-1P[1] |
| APC | 681 BTR-60PB-MD1 8x8, 812MT-LB (tracked) |
| Armored patrol vehicles | 7 M1117 4x4, 12 BRDM-2 4x4 |
| M1114 Humvees | 52 |
| G-class armored jeeps | 600 |
| Plasan Sand Cats | 25 |
| Artillery pieces over 100 mm (excl. mortar) | 192 |
| SAMs | 208 |
| AAA | ca. 300 |
| SS-21 | 18 |