Bangladesh gets its first Hamilton class cutter

Bangladesh received it first decommissioned Hamilton class cutter from the U.S. Coast Guard at a ceremony on Coast Guard Island in Alameda, Calif.

The Coast Guard transferred the 3,300-ton cutter, formerly the USCGC Jarvis, to a 20-member team from the Bangladeshi navy.

The Jarvis -- decommissioned in October and renamed BNS Somudro Joy -- was sold to Bangladesh as an excess defense article through a foreign military sales program, the Bangladeshi news website bdnews24.com reported.

At the ceremony were U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, Cmdr. Coast Guard Pacific Area and Chief of Naval Staff for the Bangladeshi navy Vice Adm. Muhammad Farid Habib, a report by the Bangladesh military website bdmilitary.com said.

The ship's commanding officer Capt. Mohammad Nazmul Karim arrived in Alameda in March to begin preparations to accept the Jarvis. Another 70 crew members arrived this month.

Around 26 former Jarvis crew members will advise the Bangladeshi crew until Somudro Joy sails for Bangladesh this year.

The 378-foot Somudro Joy, which has a helicopter landing deck and hangar, is powered by two Pratt and Whitney gas turbines and two Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines.

Bangladesh navy to get 2 submarines

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her government had moved to purchase two submarines and a coast guard cutter for Bangladesh Navy to modernise and strengthen the force.

“Activities are going on to purchase two submarines from a friendly country,” she told parliament while replying to a lawmaker's scripted query on her government's efforts to modernise the navy, army and air force.
Hasina, however, did not mention the name of the country friendly to Bangladesh and the timeframe for completing the purchase.
The coast guard cutter will be purchased from the USA, she said.
According to a report prepared by the navy in early 2009, the force has planned to introduce an aviation wing and a submarine to its fleet to obtain capability of a three-dimensional force.
The force has already taken steps to build infrastructure and train up its personnel, said the report sent to the armed forces division, a wing under the prime minister's office.
In her scripted answer, the premier said her government has already purchased missile, torpedo for destroying ship and submarine, depth charge, rocket launcher, canon, radar and other weapons for the navy.
Earlier on June 13 last year, Planning Minister AK Khandker, who is in charge of the defence ministry in the parliamentary affairs, told parliament that the government has moved to purchase two off-the-shelf [readymade] frigates, two large patrol crafts, two maritime patrol aircrafts and five patrol crafts for the navy.
In scripted answer to the query, the premier also described her government's various measures to modernise and strengthen the army and air force.

Bangladesh PM to ink $1.5bn arms, nuclear deals in Russia

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 Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will sign defence and nuclear energy deals worth $1.5 billion during a three-day visit to Russia which begins on Monday, the government announced.
Hasina flew out the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Monday at the head of a 54-member delegation to Moscow where she is expected to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin at his Kremlin offices on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters a total of nine accords would be signed during the trip, including a $500 million credit agreement to help fund construction of Bangladesh's first nuclear power plant.
Moni also said Bangladesh would use Russian government credit to enable it to buy a range of defence equipment.
"The amount of the defence purchase deals that are going to be signed is one billion dollars," she told reporters in comments broadcast on Bangladeshi television.
The foreign minister did not give details of the equipment or of the terms of the repayment agreement.
But the mass-circulation Prothom Alo daily said fighter jets, helicopters, armoured vehicles, anti-tank missiles, automatic grenade launchers and radar equipment would all be included in the package.
A.N.M Muniruzzaman, an analyst at the Dhaka-based Institute of Peace and Security Studies, told AFP it was the biggest defence deal ever to be signed by Bangladesh which gained independence in 1971.
Bangladesh, one of the world's most impoverished countries, has been expanding its defence capabilities in recent years, building a new air base close to neighbouring Myanmar and adding new frigates to its navy.

India Begins $2.2-billion QR-SAM Procurement Effort

The Indian government has cleared the way for a massive procurement effort for quick-reaction surface-to-air missiles (QR-SAMs) to arm eight air defence regiments of the Indian Army. The missiles are intended to replace obsolete Soviet air defence systems, most of which are unserviceable anyway.

As I reported a year ago, MBDA will be pitching the in-development Indo-French joint short-range surface to air missile (SR-SAM) or Maitri for the competition, in the hope that "enhanced synergies" will see a concept weapon get its big break even before its fully operational. It is not clear if MBDA will field any other product. I hear that MBDA has competition from the Rafael-IAI SpyDer, an upgraded version of Raytheon's MIM-23 Hawk or modified SLAMRAAM  and the Russian TOR M1 9M330.

The Army, as I reported a year ago, is looking for a QR-SAM system with a reaction time of six seconds or less, with an engagement range of 9-15 km at altitudes of not less than 6 km. It's looking for a weapon that delivers a single shot kill probability (SSKP) of at least 70% for a single missile fired, and 85% for a salvo shot involving two missiles. The missile also needs to be able to threats moving at speeds ranging from 0 km/h (a hovering helicopter) to 500 m/s on fast jets. The Army is hoping for systems that deploy missiles that have ECCM capabilities and compatibility with vehicles currently in use. The full parameters are here.

Bangladesh Army, Navy and Airforce

Bangladesh to buy Russian YAK 130 trainers

Dhaka is set to procure 10 fighter training planes from Moscow in keeping with its plan for collecting military weapons made by Russia in the next five years under a suppliers’ credit of $850 million, officials said on Thursday.

Russia’s state-owned aircraft manufacturer Irkut Corporation is likely to supply the fighter training planes named Yak-130 through Rosoboronexport, the sole Russian state intermediary agency for export and import of military and dual-purpose products, technologies and services.

A delegation led by the Rosoboronexport chief, Anatoly P Isaikin, arrived in Dhaka on Friday on a three-day visit. He was invited on Sunday by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, to a meeting where negotiations made a substantial progress.

A team, lead by Major General Abdul Matin of the Armed Forces Division, earlier visited Moscow in December 2011 to initiate the proposed biggest-ever arms purchase deal between the two countries.

Irkut president Alexei Fyoforov told Russia’s official news agency ITAR-TASS News Agency on Tuesday that talks with Bangladesh were in initial stages.

‘Bangladesh has a big budget, what is more, a state loan might be used,’ he said, adding that the market capacity for Yak-130 aircraft might reach 2,500 planes by 2020.

‘We hope to get from 25 to 30 per cent of this market,’ he added.

The Yakovlev Yak-130 is a subsonic two-seat advanced jet trainer/light attack aircraft or lead-in fighter trainer developed by the Yakovlev Design Bureau.

Development of the plane which began in 1991 was put into service in the Russian Air Force in 2009.

As an advanced training aircraft, the Yak-130 is able to replicate the characteristics of several 4+ generation fighters as well as the fifth-generation Sukhoi T-50.

It can also perform light attack and reconnaissance duties, carrying a combat load of 3,000kg.

Bangladesh bought eight MiG-29s for about $124 million from Russia during the past tenure of the Awami League in government.

Bangladesh planned military equipment procurement from Russia to modernise its Armed Forces.

Dhaka also hopes to procure 44 new tanks and three armoured recovery vehicles from China and two helicopters for the army from France, they said.

The deals would cost less than $200 million.

Speaking at the Armed Forces Day celebrations in August 2011, Hasina said that her government would procure modern tanks, artillery, air defence missile systems, fighter aircraft and helicopters.

Russian YAK 130 trainers

 

 

Bangladesh Army Pics - Type 69 tank, tank crew , training, artillery and infantry weapons

Some of the pictures taken during the Bangladesh Rifles mutiny

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Mutiny in Bangladesh army

Mutinous Bangladesh border guards opened fire at their headquarters in the capital and seized a nearby shopping mall, injuring several people.

Gunshots and mortar shells boomed at the well-guarded complex of the Bangladesh Rifles, surrounded by busy shopping malls, colleges and residential buildings, private TV stations Bangla Vision and ETV said.
Officials could not be immediately reached for comment on the violence.
An ETV correspondent reporting live from the scene said guards came out of their barracks and seized a conference hall where officers were meeting.
The report said troops of the Bangladesh Rifles, the official name of the country's border guards, chanted slogans for more pay and better facilities.

Several bystanders outside the complex were injured and taken to state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital, ETV said.
Some of the troops also stormed out of the complex and seized a nearby shopping mall, ETV reported.
The fighting occurred a day after newly elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the headquarters and addressed the troops, urging them to become "more disciplined and remain ever ready to guard the country's frontiers."

Bangladesh to buy 44 armored vehicles from China

DHAKA: Bangladesh will purchase 44 military armored vehicles from China at a cost of 200 million dollars.
 
Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Zhang Xianyi came up with the disclosure on the military purchase at a press meet at the National Press Club Monday.
 
“The military hardware will be delivered to Bangladesh within next 15 months,” he said.
 
He, however, could not give the total figure of military hardware purchase from China.
 
The ambassador termed “fruitful” the recent visit of Bangladesh army chief General Mubeen to China and said, “Defence cooperation between Bangladesh and China is an important component of our bilateral relations.”

India may start army supplies to Bangladesh

New Delhi  -One of the issues that may be taken up during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Bangladesh visit is closer defence ties between the two countries.
 
India is, for the first time, open to even supplying military hardware and spares to its eastern neighbour. Government sources said apart from closer army-to-army contacts, India may supply spares and undertake repairs of armoured corps' equipment.
 
India has never supplied weapons to Bangladesh - as Dhaka has not made any queries recently - since its independence war of 1971. But Dhaka recently hinted that they needed spares and ammunition for their artillery guns and tanks.
 
The Bangladesh government largely purchases small weapons, mortar, air defence artillery, artillery guns, main battle tanks, F-7 fighters and frigates from China.
 
The other major suppliers are Russia (MiG-29 fighters), the United States (helicopters), the UK and even Pakistan.
 
Dhaka also wanted closer cooperation in training and increase in bilateral contacts.
 
During Indian army chief General VK Singh's five-day visit to Dhaka last June, the Bangladesh military leadership said the reciprocation from the Indian side to training courses in Dhaka was less than that of Bangladesh's in Indian defence colleges.

Bangladesh Army will purchase 44 new main batle tanks MBT-2000 Type 90-II from China.

For the first time in the country's history, the Bangladesh government will purchase 44 new tanks MBT-2000 Type 90-II and three armoured recovery vehicles (ARV) for the army as part of its plan to modernise the armed forces. The country will also buy two brand new helicopters for the army to ensure necessary logistic support for the UN peacekeeping activities.

 The Main Battle Tanks (MBT-2000) and the ARVs will be bought from China, and the helicopters from France through government-to-government deals, which were recently signed. According to the deals, the cost of the tanks will be around Tk 1,201 crore, and the helicopters Tk 174 crore. Besides, a process is on to buy 18 brand new cannons.
The purchases would be done from the budgetary allocations for the army, said government sources.
The government increased the allocation for the armed forces to Tk 12,134 crore in the proposed budget for fiscal 2011-12 from Tk 10,918 crore in the current fiscal year.
"The tanks will be bought through a government to government deal ensuring maximum transparency," Master General of Ordnance (MGO) of Bangladesh Army Maj Gen Abdul Matin told The Daily Star yesterday.
"The purchase is being done as a part of modernisation of the Bangladesh Army," he said adding that the tanks will be delivered in phases over a span of 27 months. In the first phase 24 tanks will come within 20 months, and the rest will come in the second phase over the next 7 months.

Bangladesh Army Inventory

RN -94 of Bangladesh Army

Bangladesh Army Photos