Bangladesh Air-Force Bangladesh Air Force

[Isa Khan]

 

[Isa Khan]

 

[Gary]

@Afif

Why the procurement of MiG-29 only stops at 8 ? Isn't there any attempt to complete the number into a squadron of at least 12 ?

I remember the BAF decided to instead purchase 36 F-7BGI from China, instead of additional MiGs.

 

[Afif]

So, they bought 8 MIG29 in 1999
When BD's economy was $50 billions.

There was plan to procure more 4th gen fighter. However, in 2006 and 2013 to replace mig21, old F-7 and F-86, they bought 16x+16x F7BGI. Instead of buying 4th gen fighters to replace them.


Then later tender for 12x SU-30 failed in mid 2010s.
Now we are running with the current tender of 16x western origin MRCA.



Edit- I believe, we should abondan the current tender too.
And declare a new tender for 24x MRCA. So, we can stablish 2x independent squadrons at two different air bases each.
(Otherwise having a credible air deterrence force against certain neighbor would remain unrealized)

Also, we should buy 2x ASTER batteries for those two airbases in dhaka and chottogram. ( additionally, they will provide adequate air coverage for our two most important cities as well as strategically important 9th and 24th divisions and Isa kha naval base)

 

[Isa Khan]

Why the procurement of MiG-29 only stops at 8 ? Isn't there any attempt to complete the number into a squadron of at least 12 ?

Mig-29 was ordered when Hasina was PM but people say after 2001 election Khaleda Zia canceled the order/delivery of the second batch. There were also report about BAF getting 16-32 Migs though these infos couldn't be verified. But yes, Khaleda Zia did try to sell the 8 Migs we had. During $1 billion deal with Russia BAF wanted to buy Su-30 but later settled for Yak-130. It also had plans for second hand Mig-29SMTs but went for F-7BGI.

BD decides to get rid of MiG-29s

DHAKA: The recent decision by the Bangladesh government to get rid of the Russian made MIG-29s purchased through a...

www.dawn.com

I remember the BAF decided to instead purchase 36 F-7BGI from China, instead of additional MiGs.

That's new. Any source?

 

[Afif]

Mig-29 was ordered when Hasina was PM but people say after 2001 election Khaleda Zia canceled the order/delivery of the second batch. There were also report about BAF getting 16-32 Migs though these infos couldn't be verified. But yes, Khaleda Zia did try to sell the 8 Migs we had. During $1 billion deal with Russia BAF wanted to buy Su-30 but later settled for Yak-130. It also had plans for second hand Mig-29SMTs but went for F-7BGI.

BD decides to get rid of MiG-29s

DHAKA: The recent decision by the Bangladesh government to get rid of the Russian made MIG-29s purchased through a...

www.dawn.com

That's new. Any source?

That is probably what is in online sources.
Actually it is 32x. ( 16x were bought in 2006 and 16x more were bought in 2013. 4 were in service before that. So in total 36 F-7)

 

[Afif]

@Gary the deal to buy 8 might were highly controversial. So, next government try to get rid of them, but later backed down.

 

[yf120]

This brings back memories of the pre-mig-29 acquisition. BAF would have Italian or American fighter jets in the inventory that would still be in service, but because of a certain country, this did not happen, and I am not sure if it was for the good or bad. My money is on the bad, as it served mostly that country's interest

 

[Isa Khan]

Mig-29 wasn't a highly controversial deal and BNP didn't didn't back down from the case. HC stayed it. The graft case was actually an attempt to silence BAL. BNP and caretaker govt's excuses were this purchase was unnecessary, waste of public money and a great loss for the country but they don't really explain how a more capable modern new generation fighter is unnecessary and how the money was wasted and the deal was a loss for BD. They stopped paying installments to Mig company without notifying the specific reasons so the company went to international court for that. So it was clear that it was just a political move against BAL.

Those Migs were procured at half the price and it was the best thing BAF got after Mig-21 and it's still best fighter we have. We could have had F-16 if US allowed it. Then we wouldn't have to go for Mig-29. We could've simply upgrade those fighter to Block 70 and with Turkish weapons and wouldn't have to worry for decades. Surely BNP made the good use of public money during it's tenure and bought 10th generation super stealth F-7BG which keeps terrorizing our neighbors, far deadlier than a nuclear missile. Such a benevolent move for our country.

https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4f40e9e12.pdf

 

[Afif]

And i am wondering, what prevented BAL from buying more 4th gen fighter when they are running the country for 15 years?

And why on earth they bought the same 10th generation super stealth F-7 again in 2013?


And the mig-29 deal was indeed problematic.


"The reason given for discarding the MiGs by the government was that the air force simply couldn’t afford to purchase the necessary spares and maintain these machines at a recurring cost of one billion taka annually.

It is interesting to know that prior to the signing of the purchase deal, one of the security agencies of the country, in an evaluation memo to the government, had suggested that the purchase of the MiGs would exhaust the maintenance budget of the air force.

The memo also pointed out that instead of increasing the Bangladesh Air Force’s combat capacity, it would actually reduce it because the maintenance of the existing outfit of five squadrons, each having 16 jets, would be in jeopardy for paucity of funds."

BD decides to get rid of MiG-29s

DHAKA: The recent decision by the Bangladesh government to get rid of the Russian made MIG-29s purchased through a...

www.dawn.com

 

[Gary]

That's a sad story mate, I wonder what choice are there in the 90s to have a 4th gen fighter other than the Su-27 and MiG-29 for the cheap. The JF-17 aren't ready yet, the F-16s comes with strings attached.

But by the 2010s, the JF-17 is already a mature plane, the BAF decided to go and buy additional F-7BGI. Which is a downgrade from the MiG-29s.

Also I find it interesting that BAF traded the Su-30 and goes for the Yak-130 instead, which is weird.

 

[Isa Khan]

"The reason (excuse) given for discarding the MiGs by the government"

And yet somehow magically BAF was able to maintain Mig-29 when BAL came to power. Not only that, they also suddenly had funds to overhaul them while maintaining other aircraft and buy new one including other projects. Surprise, surprise.

It was mentioned numerous times that BGI was a stop-gap at first phase which is still the best version of F-7 and I already mentioned above about Su-30 and Mig-29SMT. After seeing what Russia do with the buyers, glad we didn't go for any of these. And 2nd time Russia only tender was failed thanks to Myanmar and Russia. Now we're in 3rd attempt with huge possibility to fail again.

People need to read carefully and remember old infos. Somehow money is always available for stealing or pole dancing but not for country's security.

But by the 2010s, the JF-17 is already a mature plane, the BAF decided to go and buy additional F-7BGI. Which is a downgrade from the MiG-29s.

Only Block 1 was available at that time and that didn't have composites in air frame. Bangladesh military had (probably still has) a rule that a product has to have export success to at least three countries. (with some exception). More interesting thing is BAF didn't even bother to evaluate them, they were evaluating other aircraft better than JF-17.

Also I find it interesting that BAF traded the Su-30 and goes for the Yak-130 instead, which is weird.

Not really weird. Probably they realized they didn't have any modern training aircraft to prepare for new combat aircraft. T-37s were retired and we only had 7 L-39s for the basic and advanced jet training so there were lots of pressure on them. Also we had to replace A-5 and FT-6 of 21 squadron with a new aircraft capable of carry out ground attack so Yak-130 was selected because of price. Some idiots cry about procuring trainers but make sense why BAF bought Yak-130 and K-8W. L-39s will be retired in few years.

Also remaining F-7MBs were transferred to 25 squadron for fighter OCU and F-6 were retired so BAF had to buy a fighter so they went for something they are already familiar with. 10 years of negligence (even more) damaged BAF a lot.

 

[Isa Khan]

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

how does the SD-10 compare against R-77, R-27ER1 ?

 

[Afif]

how does the SD-10 compare against R-77, R-27ER1 ?

Not well. Why?

 

[Isa Khan]

Night flying of Chengdu F-7BG of Bangladesh Air Force

 

[Isa Khan]

Latest click of overhauled C-130B Hercules (61-2640) of Bangladesh Air Force with new paint scheme at Cascade Aerospace.

 

[Isa Khan]

17 August 2023, BAF pays tribute to Former Chief of Air Staff Bir Uttam Air Vice Marshal (retd.) Sultan Mahmud at BAF Base Bashar. He has passed away at a hospital in Dhaka on Monday night at the age of 79 years. Sultan Mahmud played an important role as the commanding officer of Sector-II at first and later in Sector-I during the Great War of Liberation in 1971. Sultan Mahmud also led Bangladesh Air Force's Kilo Flight operation against Pakistani forces.

 

[Gary]

how does the SD-10 compare against R-77, R-27ER1 ?

Not well. Why?

SD-10 is quite comparable to the R-77 across their variant. R-27ER1 are SARH missile, more comparable to AIM-7s/PL-11s.

The R-77 has a long development run, even until very recently its common to see Russian jets with R-27s instead of R-77, likely factoring

1. Their limited numbers
2. The VKS doubted its performance.(debatable)

Off course the recent heavy use of the R-77 in Ukraine will naturally helped Russian designers in their development.

 

[Isa Khan]

Bangladesh Air Force Lockheed C-130J 99-5482 (S3-AGF) made a very welcome visit to Cambridge on August 18, 2023, arriving from Barcelona at 10:00 UTC and departing to Reykjavik at 12:35 UTC. This is the second ex RAF C.5 aircraft (ZH884) that was refurbished here by Marshall ADG and delivered to BAF in May 2022 and the first one to revisit Cambridge of the four BAF C-130J aircraft delivered so far.