BNS Bangabandhu

Career

Named after Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who is popularly termed as Bangabandhu, the frigate is capable of serving in a combat role, as well as performing peacetime maritime duties. She was laid down on 11 March 1998 at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Republic of Korea, and commissioned on 20 June 2001 as BNS Bangabandhu.

Later, the ship was decommissioned for various warranty repair works and placed in reserve class-III as DW 2000-H frigate on 13 February 2002. In 2007 she was commissioned again as BNS Khalid Bin Walid. Later on in 2009 she was renamed as BNS Bangabandhu.

The ship participated in Exercise Ferocious Falcon, a Multinational Crisis Management Exercise, held at Doha, Qatar in November 2012. While transiting to the exercise, the frigate visited the port of Kochi, India. The ship took part in Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training(CARAT), an annual bilateral exercise with United States Navy, from 2011 to 2015.

On 29 August 2013, the ship received the National Standard. Until then Bangabandhu was serving as the flagship of the Bangladesh Navy.

In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a 777-200ER gone missing while in flight. Due to the possibility of finding the wreckage in the Bay of Bengal, Bangabandhu, along with the frigate Umar Farooq, joined the search operation in the region.

On 31 May 2016, she started for Colombo, Sri Lanka with 150 tonnes of relief for the victims of the floods and landslides caused by Cyclone Roanu. The relief included lifesaving drugs, water purifying machines, pure drinking water, tents, food items and generators. She will also join the rescue efforts there.

Armament

This vessel is said to be the most modern frigate of its class according to official statistics. It is equipped with some of the most advanced systems available; the Otomat Mk.II anti-ship missiles on board the vessel are an advanced and highly capable missile system with a range of over 180 kilometres (110 mi); with mid-course update from suitably equipped helicopters, aircraft or surface platforms these anti-ship missiles can change course mid-flight and the warship does not need to be repositioned to fire at the target (unlike other anti-ship missiles). In June 17, 2013 during the annual exercise "Sea Thunder 2013", BNS Bangabandhu successfully fired an Otomat missile for the first time. The frigate will be upgraded with the addition of another quad Otomat anti-ship missile launcher. Additionally the vessel is armed with sophisticated point-defence surface-to-air missile (SAM) system in the form of 8 FM-90N SAMs (15 kilometres (9.3 mi) range) and 4 Otobreda 40 mm/70 compact CIWS in two twin mounts. The vessel is also armed with 6 324 mm B-515 tubes in two triple mounts which fire the EuroTorp Whitehead A244/S Mod.3 torpedoes. All of these weapons systems together with the one Otobreda 76 mm/62 Super Rapid gun give the vessel extensive combat capability.

The AgustaWestland AW109 Power naval helicopter on board can be used for Search and Rescue (SAR) purpose.

Electronic warfare

This frigate is equipped with sensors and ESM provided by Thales Netherland. The combat management system of the ship is Thales TACTICOS.

Mission

The primary role of this ship is the defence and surveillance of the country’s exclusive economic zone. She also carries out various constabulary tasks within Bangladesh’s maritime boundary against maritime terrorism, environmental pollution, smuggling and can also be deployed for search and rescue operations when necessary.