Smilets Airfield

The closure was a direct result of military-strategic changes and economic reasons. As a reserve military airfield, its purpose became obsolete with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the subsequent reduction in the size and budget of the Bulgarian Air Force. Maintaining numerous dispersal airfields was no longer strategically necessary or financially viable.

The site is no longer an airfield and is permanently repurposed. A large portion of the former runway, taxiways, and surrounding areas has been converted into a photovoltaic power plant, utilizing the flat, open space for a solar farm. The remaining concrete surfaces are in a state of significant decay, and the unused parts of the site are overgrown and abandoned.

Smilets Airfield was a military airbase built during the Cold War. It functioned as a 'Zapasno operativno letishte' (Reserve Operational Airfield) for the Bulgarian Air Force. Its primary strategic purpose was to serve as a dispersal location for combat aircraft, likely fighters such as MiG-21s and MiG-23s, from main operating bases like Graf Ignatievo in the event of a conflict. This strategy aimed to increase the survivability of air assets during a potential first strike. The airfield did not host permanent flying squadrons but was maintained in a state of readiness for wartime deployment and occasional training exercises.

There are zero prospects for reopening Smilets as an airfield. The construction of the large-scale solar farm on its primary operational surfaces (the runway) represents a permanent change in land use. Reverting the site to aviation use would require the complete removal of the power plant and a full reconstruction of the runway, which is economically and practically unfeasible.