Bangladesh Air Force

[UKBengali]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1473990180738535424

Good to hear finally.

BAF already has R-73E but really needs the active-radar guided R-77 to turn its Mig-29s into true BVR capable fighters.

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

BAF already has R-73E but really needs the active-radar guided R-77 to turn its Mig-29s into true BVR capable fighters.

Although its good news,
R-77s aren't really that good , depending on the flight profile it can get 23km to 50km. R-27ER1 has better range but probably worse seeker.
This should have been done much earlier.
if there was a word(or two ) to describe BAF it would be decision paralysis

 

[blain2]

Bangladesh is not Pakistan.

US has no reason to do such things with BD.

People said the same about Turkey and even the Saudis 10 years ago. I.e. US would never stop providing military gear etc. The day BNP comes into power and pushes away from being too aligned with India, roadblocks and sanctions are very much a possibility. You'd have to be an idiot if you were in a Muslim country and did not think US sanctions are applicable to your country. It is just a matter of time. Watch within the next 5 years, Egypt (already is) and possibly even Jordan would be sanctioned.

 

[Destranator]

Although its good news,
R-77s aren't really that good , depending on the flight profile it can get 23km to 50km. R-27ER1 has better range but probably worse seeker.
This should have been done much earlier.
if there was a word(or two ) to describe BAF it would be decision paralysis

Russia is working to improve R-77. Hope BAF gets an effective variant.

 

[Destranator]

One advantage of getting Rafales would be access to NATO standard equipment without the threat of US strings - France is pretty pissed at the US due to the Australian submarine fiasco. They are desperately looking for new markets and would love to have BD enter the ecosystem of French weapon systems.
The big disadvantage would be the influence of India as a major customer over the French.

Thoughts?

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

One advantage of getting Rafales would be access to NATO standard equipment without the threat of US strings - France is pretty pissed at the US due to the Australian submarine fiasco. They are desperately looking for new markets and would love to have BD enter the ecosystem of French weapon systems.
The big disadvantage would be the influence of India as a major customer over the French. I left out the Italians because they are reliable defence partners

Thoughts?

okay this is my opinion ,

1. French will sell their gear to anyone willing and able to pay (even to their own enemies) . They take their weapons industry very seriously (many jobs at stake). Egypt managed to acquire the Scalpe 560km stealth cruise missile despite USA, isntreal whining and not being part of MTCR.

during the Iran-Iraq war , france supplied Mirage F-1 and exocet from its own inventory
Sold Pakistan the Agosta Submarine technology with AIP (most advanced at the time of introduction) when the Americans were embargoing them for nuclear programme.
Russian T-72b3/T-80UK had thermal imaging system from Thales Catherine FC. Not to mention the LHD deal which got cancelled.
UK Germany don't have this flexibility , you are an arms dealer , act like one.



the downsides:
Corruption on deals (former french president comically stole money from the Pakistan Agosta deal and put it to his own election campaign which he lost )

Price hiking (in conflict scenario)


interesting points
>They may allow integration of foreign armaments from UAE

if Pakistan had got the Rafale and Mirage-2000 it wouldn't have been affected by sanctions as much as F-16 is.

The big disadvantage would be the influence of India as a major customer over the French.

many indians think the Rafale is their বাবার সম্পত্তি because they bought some. Some Pakistanis and Bangladeshis also share this opinion.
Be prepared to read stuff like ''HOW BD AFFORD RAPHALE ? '' only supa pow can afford Raffle or
''China secretly funding Bangladesh AF to acquire RAPHAEL secrets '' from the usual suspects
As for the maintenance facilities , i dont think the gov would use the notoriously bad IAF MRO facilities responsible for their high crash rate. We didnt even send our Migs to overhaul and upgrade to them despite being cheaper and somewhat more advanced than Belarus.

 

[Destranator]

okay this is my opinion ,

1. French will sell their gear to anyone willing and able to pay (even to their own enemies) . They take their weapons industry very seriously (many jobs at stake). Egypt managed to acquire the Scalpe 560km stealth cruise missile despite USA, isntreal whining and not being part of MTCR. View attachment 803169
during the Iran-Iraq war , france supplied Mirage F-1 and exocet from its own inventory
Sold Pakistan the Agosta Submarine technology with AIP (most advanced at the time of introduction) when the Americans were embargoing them for nuclear programme.
Russian T-72b3/T-80UK had thermal imaging system from Thales Catherine FC. Not to mention the LHD deal which got cancelled.
UK Germany don't have this flexibility , you are an arms dealer , act like one.

^^^This. Agreed.

the downsides:
Corruption on deals (former french president comically stole money from the Pakistan Agosta deal and put it to his own election campaign which he lost )

Price hiking (in conflict scenario)

In reality, the above is a "positive" in the BD context as our chors love dealing with their chor counterparts as it is a win-win for them.
Our govt hates honest suppliers.

many indians think the Rafale is their বাবার সম্পত্তি because they bought some. Some Pakistanis and Bangladeshis also share this opinion.
Be prepared to read stuff like ''HOW BD AFFORD RAPHALE ? '' only supa pow can afford Raffle or
''China secretly funding Bangladesh AF to acquire RAPHAEL secrets '' from the usual suspects
As for the maintenance facilities , i dont think the gov would use the notoriously bad IAF MRO facilities responsible for their high crash rate. We didnt even send our Migs to overhaul and upgrade to them despite being cheaper and somewhat more advanced than Belarus.

It is not about the moron Indian commoners who think such things but about the leverage of India over Dassault. Mind you, the Indian MMRCA program is not complete yet.
They are still dangling the 100+ MMRCA order over the noses of the French. If this drags on until a not-so-India-friendly admin takes charge in BD, India might arm twist the French into stopping supplies to BD. The French care about money; They might choose not to geopardise a deal worth tens of billions for keeping a nickel and dime customer like BD.

 

[Destranator]

Here is a new, sanction resistant combo worth exploring for BAF:
Rafale + J-10C.

This combo will be a maintenance nightmare and makes no technological sense. The benefits are purely geopolitical.

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

Here is a new, sanction resistant combo worth exploring for BAF:
Rafale + J-10C.

This combo will be a maintenance nightmare and makes no technological sense. The benefits are purely geopolitical.

on the other side of the coin

it makes sense because Rafale can be customised to integrate J-10c and chinese air defence system. similar to how the IAF rafale integrated with S-400

 

[Avicenna]

Here is a new, sanction resistant combo worth exploring for BAF:
Rafale + J-10C.

This combo will be a maintenance nightmare and makes no technological sense. The benefits are purely geopolitical.

Most likely scenario.

 

[mb444]

Spoke to a BN serving officer.

There are positive and negatives.

EFT is the preferred choice of BAF, F16 is the preferred choice of BA. It is crazy that BA should have any say but there we are with BD inter forces politics.

The chinese have put a spanner in the works regarding J10. They are uncomfortable with BDs western tilt but this issue seems to be a surmountable issue, except....

BN focus was to develop utilising chinese hardware but there is massive pressure to westernise again from BA. This has slowed things significantly.

Turkish hardware is coming with US backing it heavily but there is great pressure to buy US hardware. However their offering is underpowered and does not fit in with BDs need.

In the next couple of years BA will get massive ingestion of cash to upgrade.

According to him BA has taken descision to develop a fully network centric SAM systems with indeginious capability. There is also full plan for near earth surveillance, communication and comand and control satellites to be bought from canadians. BD engineers and communication experts have been receiving training and working on this for the last three years. Although he did not tell me much he indicated one of them is already up curtesy of US following the rohingya debacle. Goes someway to explain the purchase of multiple rader systems. But in my mind so we can monitor stuff, but we do not have much to counter offensive actions against us or have the firepower to take the fight to the enemy.

Completely unclear how/if these can be integrated with turkish/chinese stuff we are buying but presumably US/European hardware is on its way. One hopes all turkish systems will be compatible. If this transpires I think chinese hardware purchase will dramatically reduce, ie J10 maybe out of the picture.

Expect total paralysis for a few years for BN and BAF as BA monipolises the available funds.

My 2 cents F16s are good obviously but how many can we afford. If J10 is ruled out I do not see how we achive the quantities with a high/low mix. US gordian knot is likely to be placed on BD. We need to take some bold descisions to possibly avoid it. We can not alienate either the west or china. Subtle strategy is the order of the day but I fear BD probably have to just accept that we will have some incompatible hardware in our armed forces. We will simply have to make it work cause we do not have internal capacity to develop these systems.

 

[Avicenna]

Spoke to a BN serving officer.

There are positive and negatives.

EFT is the preferred choice of BAF, F16 is the preferred choice of BA. It is crazy that BA should have any say but there we are with BD inter forces politics.

The chinese have put a spanner in the works regarding J10. They are uncomfortable with BDs western tilt but this issue seems to be a surmountable issue, except....

BN focus was to develop utilising chinese hardware but there is massive pressure to westernise again from BA. This has slowed things significantly.

Turkish hardware is coming with US backing it heavily but there is great pressure to buy US hardware. However their offering is underpowered and does not fit in with BDs need.

In the next couple of years BA will get massive ingestion of cash to upgrade.

According to him BA has taken descision to develop a fully network centric SAM systems with indeginious capability. There is also full plan for near earth surveillance, communication and comand and control satellites to be bought from canadians. BD engineers and communication experts have been receiving training and working on this for the last three years. Although he did not tell me much he indicated one of them is already up curtesy of US following the rohingya debacle. Goes someway to explain the purchase of multiple rader systems. But in my mind so we can monitor stuff, but we do not have much to counter offensive actions against us or have the firepower to take the fight to the enemy.

Completely unclear how/if these can be integrated with turkish/chinese stuff we are buying but presumably US/European hardware is on its way. One hopes all turkish systems will be compatible. If this transpires I think chinese hardware purchase will dramatically reduce, ie J10 maybe out of the picture.

Expect total paralysis for a few years for BN and BAF as BA monipolises the available funds.

My 2 cents F16s are good obviously but how many can we afford. If J10 is ruled out I do not see how we achive the quantities with a high/low mix. US gordian knot is likely to be placed on BD. We need to take some bold descisions to possibly avoid it. We can not alienate either the west or china. Subtle strategy is the order of the day but I fear BD probably have to just accept that we will have some incompatible hardware in our armed forces. We will simply have to make it work cause we do not have internal capacity to develop these systems.

" The chinese have put a spanner in the works regarding J10. They are uncomfortable with BDs western tilt but this issue seems to be a surmountable issue, except.... "

What do you mean by that sentence?

 

[bluesky]

BAF needs both Gripens and J10's but BAF reminds me of a 18 year old who just passed his driving test
and wants to buy a Ferrari as his first Car.

Your line of criticism is quite weird. Please stick to logic.

 

[Avicenna]

Unrelated to BAF.

But a nice article about Egypt's decision to buy Rafale and Mig-29M/SU-35 despite having 200+ F-16s.

Illustrates why Bangladesh may have reservations to buy American fighters and why the Rafale may be a better option.

Understanding Egypt’s 54 Rafale and 24 Su-35 Jets Procurement

Egypt increased its 24 Rafale aircraft order with Dassault Aviation to 54 by signing up to buy 30 more jets in May 2021; In addition, it is in the middle of procuring 24 Su-35 jets from Russia. The Rafale fleet will bolster the Egyptian Air Force (EAF) with attack capabilities and reduce...

www.defenseworld.net

 

[Muhammad Saftain Anjum]

According to him BA has taken descision to develop a fully network centric SAM systems with indeginious capability

SAM development is one of the most difficult things in missile technology. They should start with basic ballistic missiles which is quite easy.