Russia offered Mig-35 fighter jet to Bangladesh Air Force with transfer-of-technology.
Bangladesh Air Force fighter aircraft procurement program gets a new turnover from Su-30SME towards Mig-35. It’s a nothing strange but, amazingly Russians are offering transfer-of-technology to Bangladesh accordingly. This happens when Su-30SME deal stalled due to various reasons. Russian state defense technology exporter Rosobornexport made the offer to Bangladesh.
It is said in the report that, if Bangladesh Air Force buy Mig-35 jets, these will be manufactured in the Bangabandhu Aeronautical Center in Dhaka. An MRO facility also will be established to support maintenance, repair and future upgrade works. Bangladesh needs medium weight long range fighter jets urgently to maintain air power capabilities.
Myanmar progressing their deal for the JF-17 Thunder license building in home. Talks are going on with both developer of the jet, China & Pakistan, simultaneously. Bangladesh must keep a descent number of modern fighter jet fleet to counter any national security issues.
As developer’s claim Mig-35 is a 4++ generation fighter aircraft with full combat efficiency, even with a fifth generation fighter jet. It is a medium weight, multirole combat plane capable of air superiority mission along with precision ground strike and anti-shipping role too. If the deal happens then this project will give Bangladesh defence industry a huge uplift. Recently there are much efforts has been taken to make more defense hardware in home by the Bangladesh Armed Forces.
Not clear how many aircrafts BAF will buy nor what are the details of the proposal. But it’ll be cleared soon, hope so. But, this offer of ToT means Bangladesh Air Force will buy a handsome number of the jet. Making them in home will create opportunities for some high-paying jobs for some of the Bangladeshi aviation engineers too.
Ultimately this deal comes with some potential for Bangladesh in the related sector. On the other side, China too, offering their J-10B light fighter jets to Bangladesh with a $1bn loan. No one knows which BAF will grab. Until then we must wait for the official announcements.
