In parallel with the ongoing saga with the French Armaris for the navy corvettes, the Bulgarian Navy now wants to equip itself with two more minesweepers. "We are interested in purchasing two more minesweepers and we are currently investigating the market," vice admiral Minko Kavaldzhiev said, as quoted by Bulgarian new agency BTA.

According to Kavaldzhiev, "this class of ships was most effective when deployed within a squadron." Kavaldzhiev failed to explain which squadron they would be deployed with, should they be purchased.

Potential suppliers for the vessels were France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Kavaldzhiev participated on March 24 in the christening of the Belgian-built minesweeper Cebrus. The minesweeper is the third vessel in the history of the Bulgarian navy to bear the name, after a small Bulgarian village on the Danube river. The village was the site of a major battle between Roman forces and barbarians in 28 BC.

Regarding Bulgaria purchasing a license to build its own range of corvettes and other warships, Kavaldzhiev said that "the country was looking forward to buying the license to produce the ships domestically, as the purchase of brand new vessels was five to 10 times more expensive than the price of ships offered from Belgium".

Meanwhile, the French shipbuilding company Armaris had offered the Bulgarian Government to purchase the licence for the construction of new navy corvettes, as the Sofia Echo reported on March 5 2009.

The latest French offer was made after years of fruitless negotiations that ultimately quagmired the proposal of Bulgaria buying French vessels.  The latest stance from Bulgaria is that  the country does not have the one billion leva at its immediate disposal to purchase the warships, as had initially been agreed.

Defence Minister Nikolay Tsonev said on March 4 that a proposal was discussed in Cabinet for the creation of a task force to decide whether the purchase of a licence for the construction of the warships would be feasible, but no official statement has been released to the media as of yet.

"This was not just about corvettes; it was about different types and classes of warships," said Tsvetomira Zhekova, media advisor of the Bulgarian Defence Ministry.

"The Defence Minister's idea was to stimulate shipbuilding in Bulgaria. The task force was expected to reach a final decision within 20 days and give the French side a final answer" she said on March 5.

Zhekova has refused to reveal specifics of the latest Armaris offer, including the price at which Bulgaria would be able to acquire and build its own modern warships. Unnamed sources estimated the price at around 60 million euro.

Competition for the corvettes began in early 2005, with seven companies offering their proposals to the Bulgarian Government. It was won by French company Armaris, with German Lurssen coming in second. Since then, there has been virtually no development on the project, in spite of the French government's constant encouraging of its Bulgarian counterpart to start activity.