(Original title: Observation| Bangladesh also wants to buy China J-10 fighter jets. What is the possibility?)

Special contributor to The Paper News Tai Fengshun Huang Lin

According to a CCTV News report in May this year, my country's export fighter J-10CE achieved actual combat results for the first time. It shot down multiple fighter jets in one fell swoop in air combat without losing any losses

According to a report by the Global Times on October 16th, Indonesian Defense Minister Shafri confirmed on Wednesday (15th) that the country will purchase Chinese J-10 fighter jets. "The J-10 fighter will appear in Jakarta soon," Shafri told the media on the same day. However, he declined to disclose details such as the specific timetable or quantity of the purchase.

The news of Indonesia's purchase of the J-10 has made this highly-attended fighter "one more", in addition to Indonesia, Bangladesh also wants to buy Chinese J-10CE fighters, the first war famous J-10CE may once again gain the favor of foreign users.

According to a recent report by the Global Times, Pakistan's Business Standards and the US Defense News website reported that the interim government of Bangladesh is planning to purchase new multi-role fighter jets before 2027. Although the specific model has not yet been determined,"it is very likely that it is a J-10CE fighter jet from China."

The J-10CE's entry into Bangladesh's attention once again proves that the fighter's outstanding performance in actual combat has attracted the attention of more and more countries, and it has been included in the consideration of military procurement.

What is the power of the Bangladesh Air Force?

After the Third Indo-Pakistan War, Bangladesh was formally established in 1972, and the history of the Indo-Pakistan War-born Bangladesh Air Force began its independent development. Early Bangladesh Air Force equipment relied primarily on a small number of aircraft supplied by the Soviet Union and India, such as the MiG-21MF and An-24/26 transport aircraft.

After 50 years of development, the Bangladesh Air Force has become a force with a total force of approximately 15,000, almost 200 military aircraft equipment size, with 54 fighters, models including MiG-29 and JS-7 etc., of which JS-7 accounted for 35 aircraft.

Bangladesh air force fighter J-7 aircraft

In the late 1980s, Bangladesh began to introduce J-7MB fighter jets. After entering the 21st century, Bangladesh introduced improved J-7BG series fighter jets. The improved fighter jets are equipped with digital cockpits and new air-to-air missiles. Among them, the J-7BGI is the most advanced model in the J-7 series. It is equipped with pulse Doppler radar and can effectively improve the aircraft's combat capabilities in complex combat environments; The cockpit has also been improved. In addition to the improved head-up display, it is also equipped with a multi-functional down-view display. Combined with helmet sights and new air-to-air missiles, the combat capability has been greatly improved. In 2010, Bangladesh ordered 16 J-7BGI fighter jets to be equipped with the "Thundercat" of the 35th Squadron of the Bangladesh Air Force.

Later, the J-7BGI fighter aircraft was upgraded again. According to the published photos, the new wing of this type of fighter aircraft adds the KG300G(A) self-defense interference hangar introduced from abroad, significantly enhancing its electronic warfare potential and enhancing its survival in the battlefield.

The Bangladesh Air Force uses the J-7 as an interceptor, focusing on airspace denial and rapid response rather than multi-purpose or expeditionary combat missions. The J-7 Squadron relies on Bangabandu (Dhaka), Zahul Haq (Chittagong) and major air force bases such as Matir Rahman (Jesol) to regularly conduct interception exercises coordinated with ground radar systems and air defense systems.

Bangladeshi MiG-29A fighter aircraft

In addition to the J-7, the Bangladeshi Air Force also has eight MiG-29A fighters, these fighters in 2014 after Belarus upgraded, performance upgraded to the level of MiG-29BM, is expected to continue to serve for about ten years, the aircraft is the only fighter equipped with the third generation level, but its efficiency is not good, plus the number of only eight, the number of fighters that can depart at any time is very small.

In terms of helicopters, Bangladesh's active helicopters are mainly used for transportation missions, including 35 Russian Mi-17s and 14 American Bell 212s, in addition to 4 AW139 helicopters on duty. In order to improve its attack capability, Bangladesh is actively seeking to introduce helicopter gunships. According to local media reports, Bangladesh has chosen Turkish T-129 helicopter gunships. In addition, the Bangladesh Air Force is equipped with 14 fixed-wing transport aircraft (8 of which are C-130 transport aircraft) and 62 trainer aircraft. Most of the trainer aircraft have certain combat capabilities and can act as fighter or attack aircraft if necessary. For example, the Yak-130 fighter jet imported from Russia can carry a variety of precision-guided munitions and has strong combat capabilities.

Judging from the development of Bangladesh Air Force equipment, its Air Force has developed from a symbolic force with only a small number of fighter jets to a regional air force with 15,000 personnel and nearly 200 aircraft of various types, basically meeting the needs of the country's defense. But as the external environment changes and the country's air force's older fighter jets are getting older, Bangladesh is also seeking more advanced fighter jets. It is against this background that the J-10 slowly entered the vision of the Bangladesh Air Force.

Bangladesh to introduce the J-10?

China and Bangladesh have always maintained normal defense cooperation, and their army, navy and air force are equipped with many weapons developed by China, such as J-7 fighter jets, K-8 trainer aircraft, FM-90 air defense missiles, Type 035 submarines, anti-ship missiles and main battle tanks, etc. Therefore, it is not surprising that J-10 fighter jets have entered Bangladesh's field of vision.

According to media reports, in a statement issued by the Press Department of the Office of the Chief Advisor of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh, the Chief Advisor of the Provisional Government, Mohammed Yunus, discussed the purchase of multi-purpose fighters during his visit to China in March this year. The statement noted that China had responded positively to the proposal. The U.S. Defense News website that Brendan Mawanny, director of the China Space Institute, a subsidiary of the U.S. Air Force, said that the J-10C was ¡°a modern and quite excellent fighter aircraft¡±, and he assessed that the conflict in India ¡°clearly demonstrated that the equipment manufactured by China is modern and powerful.¡±

In fact, in 2017, there were media reports that Bangladesh plans to introduce the J-10B fighter aircraft, but because of the impact of various reasons, there was no word. Bangladesh's consideration of the introduction of the J-10CE was not a decision made by the fighter aircraft in May for the real combat performance, but last year it planned to buy this fighter aircraft. According to the media last December 15 report, Bangladesh Air Force Commander Hassan Mahmoud Khan will say he is looking to buy 16 J-10CE fighter aircraft to replace the old F-7MB type fighter aircraft.

If we say that the actual combat in May had an impact on Bangladesh's introduction of J-10CE? The author believes that this actual combat is an important bonus. At present, in terms of the selection of new generation fighter jets, European Typhoon, French Rafale, and Russian Su-30 fighter jets have also entered the Bangladesh Air Force's vision. This year, the Bangladesh Air Force also sent a delegation to Europe to inspect Typhoon fighter jets. European media reported that Bangladesh is highly likely to purchase Typhoon fighter jets.

Pakistani J-10CE fighter aircraft

So what are the advantages of the J-10CE?

According to official public information, the J-10CE is an all-weather, single-engine, single-seat multi-role fighter independently developed by China's aviation industry. It has the capabilities of system coordinated operations, over-the-horizon multi-target attacks in strong electromagnetic countermeasures environments, and multi-mode precision strikes to the ground; it has excellent medium and low-altitude mobile combat, supersonic flight, short take-off and landing, large combat radius, long range and air Oil receiving capabilities; equipped with advanced integrated avionics systems and weapon systems, and strong external weapon capabilities.

The J-10CE fighter made its public debut at the 6th Dubai Air Show in 2019, and then publicly displayed again at the 13th China Air Show in 2021 (then it was a regular visitor to the China Air Show). According to the introduction of the on-site exhibition board, the J-10CE has a length of 16.9 meters, a wingspan of 9.8 meters, a height of 5.7 meters, a maximum flight speed of Mach 1.8, a maximum range of 2,950 kilometers, an air-to-air combat radius of 1,240 kilometers, and can reach 2,600 kilometers under aerial refueling conditions. kilometers. Judging from these data, basic performance indicators such as J-10CE combat radius and maximum range have reached the mainstream level of single-engine third-generation fighters. Due to the advanced active phased array radar, infrared search and tracking system, and various types of precision-guided munitions, the overall performance reaches the level of three and a half generations.

For the J-10CE, the main fighter of the Bangladesh Air Force is Chinese-style equipment. It is familiar with Chinese-style equipment and has advantages in logistics maintenance. In addition, compared with European products, it also has advantages in cost performance. In addition, the excellent actual combat performance of the J-10CE and China's no additional political conditions in military trade undoubtedly have a strong attraction to Bangladesh. However, international military trade is not simply a competition of product performance, and the influence of political factors behind it cannot be ignored. Therefore, what kind of fighter Bangladesh will choose, I believe there will be an answer soon.