Keeping The Public Spending At Home

The program of big ticket defense purchase Should keep some spending at home ,worrying less.

It has been reported on the press that govt is considering to purchase 20 J-10CE combat aircrafts from China at a cost of $2.2 billion on a G2G basis. The amount will be paid in 10 years. Although there has been much criticism about this procurement decision, govt has so far refrained from making any comments. Given the nature of the deal ,$220 million or Tk 26.78 billion per year is quite manageable for Bangladesh govt. Only $1.2 billion will be spent on buying 20 jets,the rest will be spent on spares,equipments,training and maintenance. The decision came when most of the Mig-29 aircrafts are grounded because of engine shortage. Some claiming that the J-10CE deal is a separate deal from the MRCA program(twin engine aircraft procurement) for which tender has already been floated but delayed because of sanctions on Russia.

It is not clear what engine will power the J-10CE. Some report suggests that it will be WS-10B engine. But earlier report says export version of J-10CE will be powered by Russian AL-31FN series 5 /RD93MA engine,which has greater service hours(mean time between overhaul is more than 2200 hours). Reliability of Chinese engines halted export prospect of J-10C all these years. It is claimed Chinese WS-10B engine has service hours between 500 hours and 1500 hours. That means with WS-10B, there is a need of frequent maintenance, raising the maintenance costs. The use of WS-10B engine hints that future MRCA aircraft maybe Chinese aircrafts too. Probably J-16,which also uses the WS-10B engine.

This piece does not intend to dig on technical specs of upcoming fighter aircraft but to address a key issue: keeping some of the public spending at home and adding value to the economy. In the piece titled "Altering Policy To Rejuvenate The Economy", I highlighted the need to divert part of the defense spending to the private sector in this time of austerity. It will work as stimulus and increase the capability of the private sector in addressing challenges in the defense sector. Think of this J-10C deal. Even if it comes true , then repairing and overhauling of the engines can be awarded to a Bangladeshi private company operated by former BAF engineers and technicians. Similarly, the deal can incorporate clause that allows to integrate indigenously developed munitions (training & real) into the Chinese platforms. So every year public money spent on training munitions will end up into pockets of Bangladeshi private defense article manufacturers. To sustain this domestic private defense industry, sectors like material science,precision equipment manufacturing, electronics, metallurgy, mechanical engineering,electrical engineering, engineering,AI,chemistry,chemical engineering, steel,shipbuilding,finance & leasing,logistics and stock market will develop and grow further. A whole new ecosystem will be built out of this defense spending. When Sweden was working on its first domestically designed fighter aircraft, several universities and labs got funding from the govt. And when you allow domestic private sector to take part into defense sector, you are creating jobs for high valued professionals like engineers,technicians,scientists. And you are absorbing former military engineers and technicians into this sector and they will be at the forefront in operating the companies.

We are also developing a training aircraft at home. To develop it further ,we may seek technical assistance from more advanced foreign companies. Big ticket defense purchase program allows such possibilities. Similarly, we may bring up the issues of indigenous weapons integration and domestic overhauling plant during the time of negotiations. When it comes to defense spending, business as usual should be [changed] and more private sector participation should be ensured.