Janes Defence Budgets forecasts little real terms growth in Bangladesh's defence budget over the coming few years. (Janes)
The government of Bangladesh has announced a defence budget of BDT423.6 billion (USD3.6 billion) for 2024–25. Proposed in parliament on 6 June, the new expenditure represents a 11% increase over the revised defence budget for 2023–24.
According to budgetary documents issued by the Ministry of Finance, the 2024–25 defence budget includes BDT387.9 billion for Ministry of Defence (MoD) operating expenses and BDT12.84 for development expenses.
Operating expenses, which is for military salaries and costs for operations and maintenance, increases in the new budget by 12% compared with the revised allocation for 2023–24, while funds for development, including military procurement, declines by nearly 13%.
The defence budget also includes BDT18.8 billion for MoD ‘other services', and BDT450 million for the Bangladesh Armed Forces Division, which oversees policies and force deployment.
The Bangladesh Armed Forces modernisation programme is called Forces Goal 2030. The plan was launched in 2010 and revised in 2017. However, the plan has stalled due to economic constraints, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Accordingly, military procurement activity in Bangladesh has been limited in recent years. In April 2024 the Bangladesh Armed Forces took delivery of three Norinco CS/AA3 twin-barrel anti-aircraft gun systems from China, and in 2023 the Bangladesh Army Aviation corps acquired six Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles from Türkiye.
In late 2022 Norinco also delivered a batch of an unknown number of VT5 light tanks to the Bangladesh Army.
For more information, please seeBangladesh – Janes Defence Budgets .
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