China equips Bangladesh Army with SY-400 ballistic missiles to target enemy airfields, strategic installations over 200 km away| 5 THINGS

Further boosting defence ties with Beijing, Bangladesh has decided to equip its Army with Chinese-made SY-400 Missile Systems. The objective is to ensure the plan to modernise the Bangladesh military by 2030 remains on course and to offer it with dependable mid-range, precision-strike capability, reports said.

 

Over 70 per cent of Bangladesh’s recent defence imports have been reportedly from Beijing. The decision to purchase SY-400 comes from the realisation that a modern army cannot afford not to have long-range missile capabilities. Short-range projectiles cannot offer Dhaka deterrence against adversaries. Bangladeshi defence officials reportedly insist that the purchase was a step taken to strengthen the country's defensive credibility. It was in line with Dhaka’s doctrine of “minimum credible deterrence,” Defence Security Asia said in a report.

 

The SY-400 acquisition news comes not long after the Bangladesh Air Force had a recent expansion of its fleet of Chinese J-10C fighters. Here are five things to know about the Chinese ballistic missiles that are being bought by Bangladesh:

 

• The SY-400, locally called DF-12A, was first publicly displayed to prospective customers at the 2008 Zhuhai Airshow. It is currently being used by Qatar and Myanmar, apart from the Chinese PLA. According to a 2009 U.S. State Department cable, the “SY-400 is marketed as a 150–200-km-range system that carries a 200–300 kg warhead, uses a launcher that carries eight missiles, and is capable of achieving an accuracy of 50 metres.”

 

• However, modern variants of SY-400s are said to have undergone upgrades, increasing its strike range to approximately 280 kilometres. Its standard configuration consists of eight canisters with solid-fuel missiles. When bought, the projectiles are factory-fitted into these containers and can be stored for years without requiring additional maintenance.

 

• Each missile is approximately six metres long and 0.4 metres in diameter, Defence Security Asia said in a report. They can be 900 to 1,300 kilograms heavy depending on the warhead configuration. Warhead options include high-explosive fragmentation, submunition dispensers, and cluster payloads, the report added.

 

• The SY-400s have active radar/passive radar/IIR seeker with target-recognition capabilities at the terminal stage. Unconfirmed reports claim that they are capable of terminal manoeuvre to some degree to avoid interception by SAM. They can reach speeds up to Mach 5.5 and are equipped with a hybrid guidance suite combining inertial navigation with satellite augmentation or GPS systems, a report claimed.

 

• Each SY-400 battery can transition from movement to launch readiness in under 10 minutes, and can quickly reload with ballistic missiles or smaller rockets. Its canisters are designed for a "shoot-and-scoot" strategy, which is handy for smaller armed forces with limited firepower at its disposal.

Defence