Prasun K. Sengupta

At a time when India’s defence spending has reached its lowest levels since the early Sixties, exactly the opposite is the case in the country’s immediate neighbourhood. For instance, China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Company (CSOC) on February 12 this year launched the third C-13B guided-missile corvette (F-113) for the Bangladesh Navy at Wuchang Shipyard in Wuhan. This vessel sports the CETC-developed S-band SR-2410C active phased-array radar. The corvette displaces 1,330 tonnes, is 90 metres long and 11 metres wide. There is a helicopter deck at the stern, but no hangar. The corvette has a reported top cruising speed of 25 Knots. Two similar corvettes were earlier ordered from CSOC in October 2012.

BNS Shadhinota (F-111), the lead ship, was launched on 30 November 2014 at Wuhan. The first two corvettes, Shadhinota and Prottoy (F-112) were commissioned on 19 March 2016. Two more corvettes were ordered in July 2015 and are under construction now. Each corvette is armed with four C-802A anti-ship cruise missiles (two launchers with two missiles each); one FL-3000N surface to air missile launcher (containing eight missiles); one H/PJ-26 76mm main gun; and two H/PJ-17 30mm dual mode (auto/manual) remote controlled naval turret. On January 14, the handover ceremony of the last two Durjoy-class littoral patrol craft — BNS Durgam and BNS Nishan — was held at Bangladesh. The two 675-tonne vessels were jointly built by Wuhan Shipbuilding Industry and Khulna Shipyard and were commissioned on 8 November 2017.

The Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) received the first six of its 16 Yakovlev Yak-130 advanced trainers from Russia on 17 September 2015. Bangladesh had ordered the aircraft in January 2014 in a contract that was originally supposed to include 24 aircraft, but due to financial constraints, the order was reduced to 16. Since then, one Yak-130 crashed on July 11 last year at Lohagora in Chittagong with no casualties.

In June last year, Bangladesh ordered five Mi-171Sh helicopters, and eight Su-30SME heavy multi-role combat aircraft (H-MRCA), with an option to buy four more. Deliveries will begin by this year’s end. In July 2017, Bangladesh entered into a government-to-government deal with the United Kingdom to purchase two C-130JC5 tactical transport aircraft. Dhaka currently has four Lo