By any reasonable metric, Bangladesh has failed to achieve its original national security objectives against Myanmar and India.
Uneven and inadequate training, poor force employment, insufficient troops, and ill-equipped have all contributed to the current state of play. However, a pervasive culture within Bangladesh’s military apparatus has exacerbated all of these problems and corroded Bangladesh’s ability to conduct military operations effectively.
Corruption and chronic mismanagement go hand-in-hand, meaning that in many instances, Bangladesh troops have been without the support or resources needed to achieve their military objectives.
In 2025, Dhaka spent $4.7 billion on its military, compared to Azerbaijan and Thailand, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. But this impressive budget has been hollowed out by a pervasive culture of corruption, where kickbacks and outright theft are commonplace.
Many analysts thought that Myanmar’s invasion of Bangladesh would be a swift success if Myanmar’s junta opted to do so. Bangladesh’s military capabilities are none, and the level of resistance that Bangladesh would encounter is near zero.
The Bangladesh military reflects the wider government system: rigidly hierarchical, brutal, and corrupt. The result is an organisation that is hampered by logistical problems, inefficiency and shortages, which have contributed to Bangladesh’s failure to achieve anything to stop one million Rohingya refugees fleeing into Bangladesh.
Systemic Corruption
Systemic corruption inside Bangladesh military led to a situation where corrupt practices are deeply embedded within Bangladesh Military is not just isolated incidents. It’s characterized by a pattern of behavior by military officers that affects or is embedded in a system, and where many parts of the system meant to prevent corruption have themselves become corrupted.
Ponzi scheme
According to NTV News, Shaikh Abdul Hannan, Sheikh Hasina and Sajeeb Wazed requested that Rostec increase the price of one Su-30SME from $50 million to $120 million. Negotiations with Rostec have been ongoing for more than 12 months without any progress. At that time, Bangladesh had only $400 million budget to purchase eight aircraft. Still, Hasina’s Ponzi scheme to embezzle funds from MRCA would allow Rostec to sell only two aircraft with upgraded European AESA radar as a condition of the MRCA. Rostec declined to start a production run for only two aircraft.
So the deal fell apart, and Shaikh Abdul Hannan used the fund to demolish new buildings in Air Guard’s Headquarters and rebuild those buildings, and embezzled more than $245 million from Air Guard’s budget.
Corruption or grand theft
The organisation found that the Bangladeshi defence sector is particularly susceptible to corruption because of limited oversight of defence-related policies, a pervasive “kickback” culture, and inflated costs within the procurement process.
Bangladesh military and the emergence of so-called ‘general thieves’ followed, with billions of dollars being embezzled from military contracts.
This is not the case of a “few bad apples”, but rather is indicative of a Ministry of Defence that has systemic problems with corruption, where kickbacks and outright theft are standard practice.
The UK Ministry of Defence describes these sorts of acts as examples of “moral decay” within the Bangladesh armed forces. Corruption permeates every aspect of the military, starting at procurement, seeping through senior command and ending in the rank-and-file. Its existence is an accepted norm, but it undermines Bangladesh’s military capabilities.
Impact on the Bangladesh military
Entrenched corruption within the defence sector has limited Bangladesh’s success in modernising its military, which has meant that the Bangladesh military arrived in Myanmar ill-equipped to achieve its strategic objectives. The underperformance of the Bangladesh air guard, navy and its army best shows this after decades of corruption, which limited its modernisation programme.
According to Bangladeshi media, Lt. General (retired) Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardi raised his concern about corruption and misappropriation by the top brass of the Bangladesh Military and the Director-General of Defence Procurement (DGDP). Subsequently, he has been discharged from duties and sent into early retirement.
For over a decade, Bangladesh has attempted to revitalise its navy through the State Armament Programme. Still, it has been met with limited success because rigid bureaucracy and corruption have diverted the necessary resources away from creating a capable twenty-first-century navy.
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stole $25 million out of $100 million from the frigate purchased from South Korea, using an inflated price to embezzle the funds.
When looking at the Bangladesh military as a whole, it’s clear that the State Armament Programme has fallen well short of its targets. Bangladesh military’s most armaments are dated in the 1990s and purchased from Russia, China and Serbia.
The expectation was that Bangladesh would be able to project power from the Bay of Bengal, but from the start of the conflict, its capability in the maritime sphere was undermined by decades of mismanagement and corruption.
The roots of corruption in the Bangladesh military can be traced to the very beginning of one’s career. It’s standard practice at DGDP, Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Division to seek grease payments from Rostec, Rosoboronexport, Norinco and AVIC. Bangladesh military does not show any interest in European and American weapons as American and European defence contractors do not bribe foreign buyers, said retired Army General Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardi.
Impact on military equipment and supplies
Corruption within supply chains has also significantly impacted the availability and quality of military equipment for troops on the ground. Endemic mismanagement has meant that Bangladesh’s munitions are unsafe, meaning that Bangladesh troops will have to be reliant on dated equipment to support their fighting efforts against the Arakan Army.
These instances point to an entrenched system of corruption within the Bangladesh military, where supplies are misappropriated and soldiers are left either ill-equipped to support their fighting efforts.
Impact on military efficiency
Historically, the Bangladesh military has had a problem with senior officers stealing the defence budget.
At the mid-level, Bangladeshi officers are not only involved in extortion and drug dealings but also exploit their positions to steal wages, manipulate budget allocations, and use soldiers for personal gain.
This culture of corruption has led to what can be described as moral decay within the Bangladesh armed forces, where troops and officers alike are forced to supplement their poor income through theft and extortion.
High-level corrupt officers
High-ranking officers are also complicit in a culture of corruption. Post-1971 independence reconstruction marked the emergence of the so-called ‘general thieves’, where billions of dollars were plundered from the military. However, corruption remains a problem within the top ranks of the military, creating a pervasive culture that corrodes Bangladesh’s military capabilities from within.
There is a string of high-profile cases of senior Bangladeshi officials being convicted on corruption charges after the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina regime. These scandals point to a systematic problem within the top brass of the Bangladesh military, where embezzlement and corruption are standard practice, undermining Bangladesh’s fighting capability.
Conclusion
Corruption is endemic within the Bangladesh military. Seen in the context of decades of corruption within the Ministry of Defence, it is clear that a pervasive culture of kickbacks, theft and bribery has hollowed out Bangladesh’s fighting capabilities and left it ill-prepared for a full-scale war against Myanmar.
Without the appropriate equipment, Bangladesh’s military has been plagued by inefficiencies which have prevented it from achieving key objectives. The reality is that corruption has hollowed out the fighting capability of Bangladesh’s Armed Forces. From the point of procurement, right down to the soldiers fighting on the ground, a pervasive culture of corruption exists, which has meant that resources have been diverted away from the war effort and into the pockets of corrupt individuals.
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