After showing sufficient interest in acquiring Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles and associated radar systems, the Bangladesh Army has begun exploring possibilities of procuring air defence systems from the United Kingdom, documents accessed by Northeast News show.
As part of a wider plan to aggressively pursue weaponisation, Major General Mohammad Kamrul Hassan, Area Commander, Rangpur Area and General Officer Commanding (GOC), 66 Infantry Division, today left Dhaka on a Turkish Airlines flight (No. TK-713) to attend the 19th Full Spectrum Aid Defence Summit to be held in London between June 23 and 26.
Maj Gen Hasan is leading a team of six other Bangladesh Army and Air Force officers to this summit that seeks to “address the current challenges and priorities for air and missile defence”.
The Full Spectrum Air Defence Week 2025 will examine issues “relevant to the changing battlefield, highlighting the importance of enhancing international collaboration and interoperability, and solutions that will ensure threats can be quickly and seamlessly eradicated, without cost and time delays”.
While there have been rapid technological advances and an equally dynamic geopolitical shifts over the last few years, Bangladesh has been trying to chart out a relatively independent course for its defence forces.
But the team’s visit assumes significance in the backdrop future challenges, especially in the event the Bangladesh Army gets embroiled in the Rakhine State as part of a geopolitical manoeuvre in the region.
These challenges notwithstanding, the Bangladesh Army as well as the Air Force seeks to build robust air defence capabilities. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and more recently in West Asia, highlights the vital role of air defence and the related facilitating platforms.
The increasing prevalence of unmanned aerial systems, s-UAS and loitering munitions and the challenges in detection, tracking, and interception has demonstrated the need for modernised, integrated, and layered air defence systems to respond to tomorrow’s threat.
Significantly, on June 18, the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) commissioned its second GM 403-M long-range air surveillance radar in Bogura.
The installation took place about two months after the BAF inducted its first GM 403-M radar with the 71st squadron in Dhaka’s Mirpur.
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Developed and built by ThalesRaytheonSystems’ (TRS), the GM-403-M is a fully digital 3D air defence Ground Master radar family, which offers detection from very high to very low altitudes.
It tracks a wide range of targets from highly manoeuvrable low-flying tactical aircraft to unconventional smaller targets such as UAVs, ensuring good quality wide-area air picture.
When deployed on site, the radar can be connected to operate as part of a networked air defence “organisation” and can be controlled from a remote location. The radar is credited with range accuracy of 50 metres.
