Bangladesh and Chinese military equipment

(To Tiziano Ciocchetti)
11/08/22

Bangladesh appears to be dissatisfied with the quality of military supplies received from Beijing.

China uses the weapon supply tool such as instrumentum kingdom in Asia, that is, it tries to bind some countries with military dependence. However, the very low quality of the equipment produced, below Western standards, would seem to undermine this project.

An example is Bangladesh, whose Armed Forces are supplied with equipment built in China.

After a war with Pakistan in 1971, Bangladesh gained independence. To keep it he needed to upgrade his military tool. Given the economic situation that was anything but prosperous, Dhaka was forced to turn to the Chinese, who practiced much more advantageous prices than Westerners. For this reason the Army acquired light weapons, artillery and armored vehicles produced (mostly copied) by Norinco.

Currently, the Dhaka government is engaged in an upgrade program for the armored component. In 2011, in fact, he bought the Chinese MBT-2000 tank, built by Norinco starting from a tank Type 90-IIM is also updating 170 tanks Type 59 to the standard Type 59G. While more recently they have modified the fleet of Type 69 to the standard Type 69IIG.

To modernize the artillery, replacing the Chinese-made pieces, the Army acquired the 155/52 mm Serbian self-propelled rotor Nora B-52.

China provided Bangladesh with defense equipment worth a total of $ 3 billion over the period 2011-2020. Beijing is also in the process of setting up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) center and submarine base in Bangladesh. The naval base, located near the village of Magnama in the province of Cox's Bazar, will take on a strategic value of the highest value, as it will be located about 70 km from the border with Myanmar, in the Pekua Upazila area overlooking the Kutubdia canal. All this is probably related to the purchase by the Dhaka Navy of two Chinese class submarines Ming (Type 035G).

Recently, the Bangladesh Army expressed its displeasure with Norinco's supply of tank ammunition, rejecting it as not being tested.

China Precision Machinery Import Export Company (CPMIEC) also supplied Bangladesh with some equipment related to the HQ-7 short-range surface-to-air missiles.

However, several problems have been reported with respect to transport vehicles and missiles, including the engine, communication system and infrared guidance device.

The Bangladeshi Navy also said it was dissatisfied with the radars provided by China Shipbuilding & Offshore International. 

The slowdown of the Chinese economy, with consequent lowering of growth in the last two years (the IMF set China's growth at 3,3% in 2022, the lowest result in the last 40 years) indicate that the industrial apparatus of Beijing it is not in good condition.

This evidently also affects the quality (however never been high) of the production of military equipment.

Photo: Bangladesh Army