What is the current size of Bangladesh Armed Forces now?

[Homo Sapiens]

IISS Military balance is the most authoritative source of data for armed forces around the world. In it's Bangladesh pages, from 2011 to 2023 period, as revealed from it's yearbook, it updated the new formation of the army and equipment generally but its count of personnel is totally out of synchronization with those updates. According to it's report, army personnel barely increase 6000 and no additional manpower joined the Navy and Air Force in the last 12 years. This can not be true even if we take into account of their own data from elsewhere.

If we compare the IISS-2011 and IISS-2023, we can see that, Army overall expanded significantly, from 7 infantry divisions to 10 infantry divisions. If we break down further-

1. Infantry brigades went from 17 to 25 in number (47% increase)
2. Two composite brigades are formed from none since 2011.
3. One Commando battalion expanded into One Commando brigade.
4. Three new independent armored regiments.
5. Twenty artillery regiments expanded into 10 artillery brigades.

All these development suggest that army personnel increased at least 60% from it's base figure of 126,153 in 2011 which itself may be somewhat under enumeration for 2011. So current strength of Army should be at least 200,000. (58% increase from 2011 figure of 126,153 personnel)

Now, according to IISS yearbook of 2011 and 2023, Navy and Air Force saw no additional manpower recruitment in the last 12 years. This simply is not true, especially for Navy. In the last 12 years, Navy's inventory of surface ships at least doubled in number in addition to newly formed Submarine and naval aviation branches. In 2011 Navy had no Submarine and it's aviation wing barely launched.

Air force manpower also expanded somewhat. A minister in 2017 revealed in the parliament that, Navy had 24,000 and air force had 17000 manpower in that time. Now it should be 30,000 for Navy and 20,000 for air force.

So, the current size of Bangladesh armed forces = 200,000 + 30,000 + 20,000 = 250,000.