Active Conflicts & News Megathread August 27, 2025

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[u/Gecktron]

In ammunition production news:

ESUT: Rheinmetall builds ammunition plants in Bulgaria

At a meeting between former Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of the ruling GERB party Boyko Borisov and Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger in Düsseldorf on 26 August, the two sides agreed to build two ammunition factories in Bulgaria. Borisov announced this on Facebook. One factory will be used to manufacture powder and cartridges, while the other will produce artillery ammunition.

The powder factory is intended to strengthen Bulgaria's independence in ammunition production in order to create a stable pillar within NATO. The other factory is expected to produce at least 100,000 rounds of 155 mm ammunition per year, according to the announcement.

If all goes according to plan, the new factories in Bulgaria can be expected to start production within two years.

Rheinmetall and Bulgaria want to build a powder and an ammunition plant to further boost the countries ammunition production. The new 155mm ammunition plant is set to start production within 2 years, and produce up to 100.000 rounds annually. So far, Bulgaria has provided a considerable amount of soviet calibre rounds. The 155mm plant will also help providing ammunition for NATO calibres.

The powder plant also joins the other massive powder plant in the region currently under construction in Romania.

What is interesting are the finishing remarks by the two representatives:

‘This is just the beginning,’ said Papperger, hinting at further joint projects. ‘We have more projects in the pipeline,’ confirmed Borissov. More information will be provided at a later date.

Bulgaria already ordered IRIS-T SLM, which Rheinmetall isnt involved with. With powder and ammunition also already covered, the only things left to cooperate are either SKYNEX and vehicles. With Bulgaria still using T-72s and BMPs, there might be a potential for KF41 Lynx and KF51 Panther.

[u/For_All_Humanity → u/Gecktron]

If one looks at the Bulgarian military and their equipment, they’re basically still a Pact military. Their main service weapon is still 7.62x39mm! Now, they have a large industry already geared towards Pact equipment, so it makes sense.

It’s going to be interesting to see how their military transforms over the next decade. They’ve got multiple modernization programs going in and I think having production of NATO standard equipment/platforms in country will help accelerate their transition.

[u/Prestigious_Egg9554 → u/For_All_Humanity]

The Bulgarian government for the past 30 years has been refusing to invest in pretty much anything.
The MIC struggled because of that and a lot of project for Westernization got wiped out. It's honestly wonder it survived so long.
Now that the money is pouring we will see things moving... finally.

[u/roionsteroids → u/Prestigious_Egg9554]

It's honestly wonder it survived so long.

Didn't Bulgaria produce (and still do, taking a glance at Arsenals website) a lot of RPG and mortar rounds, grenades, and things like AP mines (fallen a bit out of favour, but it is what it is) - things that are in great demand in large parts of the world?

As long as they have permission to trade with countries that others might be unwilling to supply, they'll always stay in business with just those staple items that haven't changed much over the decades.

[u/Prestigious_Egg9554 → u/roionsteroids]

The neat part about it is that the people that REAAAAALLY wanna buy those stuff are usually sanctioned up the ass and it's really hard to sell them and do actual work with them (especially legally).
Yeah, some countries buy some stuff but it's usually in small quantities and they prefer second channels or second hand stuff.
The two gulf wars were probably the hardest hit for the industry as Iraq was an absolute top buyer of Bulgarian produced stuff (in general soviet consumer, but the Bulgarian MIC was heavily relligned on it) and we never really recovered from the loss of it.
It has been barely kept alive by random orders here and there.

This is why Ukraine is so important for the MIC - it is a massive backlog order that we are allowed to produce for