Dragoman Airfield

The primary reason for the closure was the strategic and economic shifts following the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991. As a military airfield, its strategic importance diminished significantly with the end of the Cold War. The subsequent downsizing and restructuring of the Bulgarian Armed Forces led to the abandonment of numerous military installations, including reserve airfields like Dragoman, which were deemed redundant and too costly to maintain.

The site has been completely repurposed and is no longer recognizable as an airfield. The former runway and adjacent areas are now occupied by a large-scale photovoltaic power plant, known as the 'Karoll-Standard Photovoltaic Park' or simply Dragoman Solar Park. Construction of the solar park began around 2012. The original aviation infrastructure, including the concrete runway and taxiways, has been either removed, destroyed, or covered by thousands of solar panels and related industrial equipment. The site is now an active energy generation facility.

Dragoman Airfield was a military installation built during the Cold War era as part of the Bulgarian Air Force's strategic infrastructure. Its primary role was to serve as a reserve or dispersal airfield (also known as a wartime or mobilization airfield). Its location, close to the border with the former Yugoslavia (now Serbia), was strategically significant. In the event of a conflict, aircraft from main operating bases would be dispersed to smaller, hardened airfields like Dragoman to increase their survivability against a first strike. It was designed to handle jet fighter aircraft, likely MiG variants used by the Bulgarian Air Force at the time. The airfield featured a single concrete runway and basic support facilities, typical for a non-primary military base of that period.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Dragoman Airfield. The current use of the site as a major solar power plant makes any return to aviation activities virtually impossible. Reopening would require the complete decommissioning and removal of the multi-million dollar energy installation and a full reconstruction of the runway and all aviation facilities, which is economically and logistically infeasible.