It may sound incredible, but Bangladesh is interested in Dassault Aviation’s Rafale, according to concordant sources. The tri-color combat aircraft has already been bought by its big neighbor India and a possible acquisition by Dacca would make sense in terms of fleet synergies. According to our information, the Bangladeshi Ministry of Defense has the budget to purchase eight combat aircraft. However, the tri-color fighter, which is not the only one wanting to land in Dhaka, is far from being the favorite in Bangladesh.
The Americans landed in force in 2019 in Bangladesh to offer the Bangladeshi armed forces a multitude of armaments, fighter jets to missile systems passing through combat helicopters. Boeing has already won an international tender and is close to an agreement to supply the Apache AH-64E. So far haspprovisionné mainly by China, then by Russia, Bangladesh has the firm intention of modernizing its armed forces, in particular its air fleet made up of MiG-29 and Chinese combat aircraft Chengdu J-7.
French exports almost nonexistent
Not surprisingly, France exports very little to Bangladesh. In ten years (2009-2018), French manufacturers have exported 25.7 million euros, including 8.4 million in 2018, to military equipment to the Bangladeshi armed forces. They were delivered over the same period for 12.8 million military items. At the end of 2018, there were 42 licenses granted in progress to Bangladesh for a total of 2.9 billion euros (including 2.6 billion naval materials).
