A decade after China delivered FM-90 air defense missile systems to Bangladesh, the country is set to get a maintenance and overhaul facility that could also serve as a production line for the same missile and its upgraded variants, reported The Tribune quoted by Sakshi Tiwari in The Eurasian Times. A Chinese Company, Vanguard, has reportedly been chosen as a partner for the FM-90 missile maintenance center to be established in Bangladesh. At the moment, Bangladesh’s Air Force, Navy, and Army are all armed with FM-90 air defense systems.
The facility is being set up even as the missile ran into a controversy in Bangladesh last year, Sakshi Tiwari reports in The Eurasian Times. Due to some technical concerns, the FM-90 had come under the scanner, alongside other arms exports from China. Questions were then raised about the longevity of Chinese arms: according to those in the know, the system component CV-102 of the FM-90 was found to be malfunctioning due to a rapid power surge, causing damage to the klystron sparking and filament.
The FM-90 system, mounted on a 6×6 chassis, is an enhanced version of the Hong Qi, a missile developed by China National Precision Machinery Import and Export (CNPMIEC) in 1998. Mobile all-weather, short-range, anti-aircraft missile system HQ-7 (HongQi-7, Huntsi-7, Red Banner-7, export designation – FM-80) was designed to destroy targets flying at low and extremely low altitudes. Creation of the HongQi-7 SAM system began in 1979. The system, which is a localized copy of the French Crotale SAM system, was developed at the Second Aerospace Academy of China (now the Chinese Academy of Defence Technology/CADT). CADT is part of China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation. Institute 23 has developed the control system and radar facilities of the complex, Institute 206 – ground equipment.