The frostiness in Bangladesh-India ties after the overthrow of the Sheikh Hasina government has been very obvious. Recently, Dhaka acquired Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, and the Bangladesh Army reportedly deployed them along the India-Bangladesh border for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
Bangladesh has bought 12 of these Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) drones, and six of them are already operational. The purchase by Bangladesh comes a year after Pakistan purchased and deployed these drones at strategic places.
Bangladesh claims that these drones have been deployed in defensive roles. Still, the Indian security forces are on high alert following the country’s developments and are keeping a close eye on its deployment.
The drone has been reported to fly very close to India’s northeastern states. If it crosses the border, the Indian Air Defense systems will take it down. Most of the time, the adversary’s balloon, UAVs, and aircraft straying into Indian airspace show as a blip on the radar. It is the size and speed of the blip on the basis of which it is deciphered if it is a balloon or a UAV.
The forces also try to fool the radar by putting aluminum strips on the balloon or increasing the UAV’s speed.
“The peacetime SoP (Standard Operating Procedure) is that no aircraft flies 10 kilometers near the border. Sometimes the aircraft, both manned and unmanned, stray into other country’s airspace,” a defense official told the EurAsian Times.
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Generally, a warning is issued on an international frequency. Fighter jets are scrambled as part of the ORP (On-Role Position) to identify the aerial intruder visually. If it is a UAV, it can be shot down immediately. “If it is a military aircraft, it could have strayed into another country’s airspace owing to some military emergency. It is asked about its emergency and asked to land at the nearest base,” the official added.
Media in the northeastern states have reported the Bangladesh TB2 drones hovering close to Cherrapunjee and Shella in the state of Meghalaya. These drones have been flying close to the International Border; however, if the border is crossed, it will give the Indian forces the right to bring them down.
A few days ago, similar-looking UAVs were spotted along the international border in South Tripura and Western Mizoram.
The Turkish drones flew north of Chhatak and Sunamganj in Bangladesh, about 200 meters south of the zero line. The drone’s activity was recorded when Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was visiting Dhaka. One of the drones, identified by its transponder code TB2R1071, was being operated from the Tejgaon Airbase.
An Indian Army mini-UAV accidentally entered Pakistan’s territory on August 23 this year due to a technical malfunction, landing in the Nikial Sector. The Indian Army has acknowledged the incident and sent a hotline message to the Pakistan Army, requesting the return of the drone, which has been recovered by Pakistani troops.
In 2019, a Sukhoi-30 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force shot down a Pakistani military drone in the Bikaner sector of the Indo-Pak border using an air-to-air missile. A ground-based radar station detected the Pakistani drone, and minutes later, one of the Sukhoi-30 jets deployed in the area to keep an eye on Indian air space shot it down.
India shot down another Pakistani drone before that along the Indo-Pak border in Kutch in Gujarat.
In 2019, a Georgian cargo aircraft flying in from the Pakistani side was forced to land in Jaipur by two Su-30 fighter jets as it had flown in from the restricted airspace.
The Pakistani aircraft Flight Atlantic-91, a French-built Breguet Atlantic plane, was shot down by the IAF on 10 August 1999, just after a month after the Kargil conflict. All 16 Pakistani personnel, including five officers on board, were killed in the crash.
Turkey’s Bayraktar Drones
The TB2 weighs one-eighth of a US MQ-9 Reaper. Capable of carrying missiles, the TB2s can destroy tanks with their MAM (Turkish for Smart Micro Munition) laser-guided missiles. TB2 drones can carry up to four such MAMs in one flight. The UAV can fly for 24 hours and 300 kilometers, and TB2 can penetrate enemy territory and destroy targets.
Bangladesh – Gateway To North-Eastern India
Geography makes Bangladesh important for connecting the seven northeastern states of India with the rest of the country.
In the recent move, Bangladesh’s telecommunications authority (BTRC) rejected the proposal from Indian companies to use Akhaura in Bangladesh to route its high-speed internet from Singapore to the Northeastern states. According to Mohammed Emdad ul Bari, BTRC chairman, moving forward with the project would hinder Bangladesh’s ability to provide internet services to parts of Myanmar and northwestern China using its network.
Right now, the internet in the Northeast region of India is linked to Singapore through special undersea cables that connect to Chennai.
North East India is also heavily dependent on Bangladesh to give it access to Southeast Asia. The states of Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura depend on having access to the sea via Bangladesh’s Chittagong port. Initiatives for connectivity, like the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project and the Agartala-Akhtar Rail Link, have resulted from the good geopolitical ties between the two countries.
