Bangladesh Air Force

[Michael Corleone]

View attachment 698471

Nice. Happy to see PAF and BAF still working together. I know that PAF officer have been winning flight safety course consecutively for last two years in BAF

 

[The Ronin]

New look of Bangladesh Air Force commando unit "41 Squadron" with Taurus SMT-9C 9mm SMG.

 

[Avicenna]

Nothing to do with BAF but thought it was an interesting video giving the different features of various fighters for Finland's competition. (Super Hornet, Eurofighter and Gripen are there along with Rafale and F-35)

 

[Destranator]

Nothing to do with BAF but thought it was an interesting video giving the different features of various fighters for Finland's competition. (Super Hornet, Eurofighter and Gripen are there along with Rafale and F-35)

I propose that BAF prioritise Gripens with MRO and assembly facilities as the mainstay of the fleet.
If the Americans try to stiffle GE F404 engine supply for the Gripens, we should offer to also buy used Super Hornets (and forget Eurofighters and any other twin engine fighters) which use the same engine. The Super Hornets would bolster our maritime capabilities many folds.

 

[Avicenna]

I propose that BAF prioritise Gripens with MRO and assembly facilities as the mainstay of the fleet.
If the American try to stiffle GE F404 engine supply for the Gripens, we should offer to also buy used Super Hornets (and forget Eurofighters and any other twin engine fighters) which use the same engine. The Super Hornets would bolster our maritime capabilities many folds.

Not a bad idea.

Gripen E and Super Hornet share similar engines and provides diversity of source and can be linked to the same overall system as well as share weapons.

The key is access to the munitions. i.e. AMRAAM or Meteor.

 

[Destranator]

Fun fact: Did you guys know that K-8Ws fly on American Honeywell engines? Looks like we already have dependency on Americans.

 

[Bilal9]

Not a bad idea.

Gripen E and Super Hornet share similar engines and provides diversity of source and can be linked to the same overall system as well as share weapons.

The key is access to the munitions. i.e. AMRAAM or Meteor.

What is the pricetag difference (apples to apples) between Gripens and J-10C's?

Aren't Gripens going to be a tad too pricey compared to say a J-10C, for a 'numbers' fighter and not a frontline one? Unless China is unable to supply J-10C...

We'd need at least seven/eight squadrons of these 'numbers' fighters as standardized 'rides', spread around all over our forward AB's.

I realize however that Gripens and Super Hornets can share the same munitions such as AIM-9 and AIM-120's, being NATO standardized. That is a definite plus. Don't know if that trumps the cost disadvantage of the Gripens AND the munitions.

PL-15's and PL-10's are definitely cheaper (than AIM 120's and AIM-9's, respectively) and we could get ToT for local assembly at least for sure. Not to forget that we can also EVENTUALLY get them from third sources like Pakistan and Turkey (my prediction).

Fun fact: Did you guys know that K-8Ws fly on American Honeywell engines? Looks like we already have dependency on Americans.

That is correct. However that engine is like the standard everyman's engine. Every business jet ever made more or less uses this engine and commercial off the shelf parts are available everywhere.

US can't put embargo on the parts. You can get it everywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_TFE731#Applications

 

[Destranator]

What is the pricetag difference (apples to apples) between Gripens and J-10C's?

Aren't Gripens going to be a tad too pricey compared to say a J-10C, for a 'numbers' fighter and not a frontline one? Unless China is unable to supply J-10C...

We'd need at least seven/eight squadrons of these 'numbers' fighters as standardized 'rides', spread around all over our forward AB's.

I realize however that Gripens and Super Hornets can share the same munitions such as AIM-9 and AIM-120's, being NATO standardized. That is a definite plus. Don't know if that trumps the cost disadvantage of the Gripens AND the munitions. PL-15's and PL-12's are definitely cheaper and we could get ToT for sure. Not to forget that we can also EVENTUALLY get them from third sources like Pakistan and Turkey (my prediction).

Acquisition cost is high but lifetime operational costs are quite low for Gripens mainly thanks to the immortal GE F404/414 engines.

With all due respect to our Chinese friends, Chinese military hardware especially aviation equipment are inherently unreliable. Bangladesh Armed Forces are not happy with their Chinese inventory and are diversifying away wherever possible.
We have lost many servicemen to Chinese equipment malfunction (mortars and tank shells exploding inside barrel, F-7BG bombing itself (this one took the cake)), F-7MBs and PT-6s falling off the sky at random despite limited, measured usage, etc..

Chinese military aviation industry is still largely dependent on stealing IP from overseas as evident by the stark visible similarities of various components (F-7 vs Mig-21, J-10 vs Lavi, J-11 vs Su-27, J-35 vs F-35, etc..).

The fact that J-10s have seen zero export orders to this day despite many poor and middle income countries being in dire need for fourth gen fighter jets is very telling.

 

[Bilal9]

Acquisition cost is high but lifetime operational costs are quite low for Gripens mainly thanks to the immortal GE F404/414 engines.

With all due respect to our Chinese friends, Chinese military hardware especially aviation equipment are inherently unreliable. Bangladesh Armed Forces are not happy with their Chinese inventory and are diversifying away wherever possible.
We have lost many servicemen to Chinese equipment malfunction (mortars and tank shells exploding inside barrel, F-7BG bombing itself (this one took the cake)), F-7MBs and PT-6s falling off the sky at random despite limited, measured usage, etc..

Chinese military aviation industry is still largely dependent on stealing IP from overseas as evident by the stark visible similarities of various components (F-7 vs Mig-21, J-10 vs Lavi, J-11 vs Su-27, J-35 vs F-35, etc..).

The fact that J-10s have seen zero export orders to this day despite many poor and middle income countries being in dire need for fourth gen fighter jets is very telling.

I guess you do have a point and I don't have enough information to qualify what you said either way (except for that one incident where rockets exploded in the wing, took the wing out and the F-7 corkscrewed itself into the ground as we saw in the video earlier this year). It would seem however that they'd improve their quality going forward.

But neighboring AF's are also quite susceptible to these issues due to poor maintenance (IAF being the most glaring example).

 

[Destranator]

I guess you do have a point and I don't have enough information to qualify what you said either way (except for that one incident where rockets exploded in the wing, took the wing out and the F-7 corkscrewed itself into the ground as we saw in the video earlier this year). It would seem however that they'd improve their quality going forward.

But neighboring AF's are also quite susceptible to these issues due to poor maintenance (IAF being the most glaring example).

IAF and BAF are not comparable as IAF jets log many times more flying hours due to operational needs.

IAF like any other serious air force has heavy emphasis on operational readiness unlike BAF.

IAF's main problem is their maintenance teams cannot keep up with their high operational needs while the fleet is predominantly Russian which is not designed for high serviceability (look up MTBO issues of Russian jets).

This is part of the reason why IAF keep screaming for more fighter jets.

While they may be losing more jets, IAF pilots have infinitely more flying experience (flight hours) compared to BAF.

In the meanwhile BAF imbeciles are content with thumbtwiddling, Wing Commanders flying Yak-130s for logging hours, and offering taxi services to UN.

Any confrontation with an enemy air force will come as a rude shock for BAF and delusional Bangladeshis in general.

 

[Bilal9]

IAF and BAF are not comparable as IAF jets log many times more flying hours due to operational needs.

IAF like any other serious air force has heavy emphasis on operational readiness unlike BAF.

IAF's main problem is their maintenance teams cannot keep up with their high operational needs while the fleet is predominantly Russian which is not designed for high serviceability (look up MTBO issues of Russian jets).

This is part of the reason why IAF keep screaming for more fighter jets.

While they may be losing more jets, IAF pilots have infinitely more flying experience (flight hours) compared to BAF.

In the meanwhile BAF imbeciles are content with thumbtwiddling, Wing Commanders flying Yak-130s for logging hours, and offering taxi services to UN.

Any confrontation with an enemy air force will come as a rude shock for BAF and delusional Bangladeshis in general.

Agreed on all points and sadly - what you say is all 100% true.

Changes have to come from the top - and with the addition of an air chief who is both professional and has a spine to ask for what he wants from the Chief of Armed Services and the PM.

None of this will happen soon I'm afraid.

Hobbling our Air Defence as a deterrent is the number one prerogative of our giant neighbor.

 

[Indos]

Looking forward for Bangladesh next Airforce acquisition but maybe Haseena wants to follow Malaysian path in decreasing defense spending for some time to focus on economic and other importand things (like education).

Malaysian defense spending is around 3 billion USD in 2019 while it was 4.5 billion USD in 2014. It is despite current GDP figure is greater than it was in 2014.

 

[Destranator]

Looking forward for Bangladesh next Airforce acquisition but maybe Haseena wants to follow Malaysian path in decreasing defense spending for some time to focus on economic and other importand things (like education).

Malaysian defense spending is around 3 billion USD in 2019 while it was 4.5 billion USD in 2014. It is despite current GDP figure is greater than it was in 2014.

This would make sense if BA and BN were sitting idle but they have completely transformed themselves in the last 10 years or so. It is BAF which is our Achilles heel.

 

[The Ronin]

Fun fact: Did you guys know that K-8Ws fly on American Honeywell engines? Looks like we already have dependency on Americans.

Correct fact: K-8W also uses Ukrainian AI-25TLK (DV-2) engine or Chinese WS-11 copy. You are obsessed with Gripen. Is this another account of Al Beruni?

 

[Destranator]

Correct fact: K-8W also uses Ukrainian AI-25TLK (DV-2) engine or Chinese WS-11 copy. You are obsessed with Gripen. Is this another account of Al Beruni?

Is my English that bad?

Gripen is by far the best all-round option (reliability, life time cost, TOT possibility, NATO compatibility,, etc..). BAF should build its backbone with a single engine fighter first and worry about one/half squadron of fancy high performance jets later as one single squadron will make little difference. But then again this is BAF we are talking about.