First of seven: Bulgaria takes over minehunter Briz from Belgium
The Bulgarian naval flag was raised in Zeebrugge on the former Belgian ship Bellis. It is the first of seven Tripartite-class minehunters the navy is acquiring.
Archive image · Photo: Mark Harkin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
At the naval base in the Belgian city of Zeebrugge, the Bulgarian naval flag was raised on Friday on the former Belgian ship Bellis (pennant number M916), now renamed Briz (Bulgarian for breeze). The handover document was signed by Belgium's National Armaments Director Lt. Gen. Bernard Faleg and navy commander Rear Adm. Kiril Mihaylov. Belgian Navy commander Rear Adm. Tanguy Botman, Bulgaria's ambassador to Belgium Natalia Uzunova and its permanent representative to NATO Nikolay Milkov attended the ceremony.
Briz is the first of a total of seven Tripartite-class minehunters – four Belgian and three Dutch – that Bulgaria will acquire under a memorandum of understanding signed with both countries in July 2026. The remaining ships will follow in the coming years.
After the necessary preparations, the ship will be rebased at Naval Base Burgas; no date has been announced. During the voyage, Captain 1st Rank Yordan Yordanov will be the senior national representative on board. The handover comes at a time when drone attacks on merchant ships off the Bulgarian coast have put maritime security in the spotlight.