It is a harsh indictment but is true.
BN in the last decade has acquired lot more ships, introduced submarines, sourced longer range missiles and radars. But the question is have these changed our defense equation vis-a-vis our neighbours.
Unfortunately i do not believe it has. True offensive capacity that we have acquired are the mings....that is all. It is too little.
And as you have said without adequate air support navies efficacy is seriously hampered.
BN has been on a tranformative journey, this absolutely should be acknowledged because it has been a result of a lot of hard work. However we are in a race and in that BN lags far behind our enemy. Can we keep the bay open against IN....yes now we can for a couple of weeks perhaps....this we could not before.
We need to be better...
Without those 6 air-defence frigates and 6-8 modern diesel electric submarines, BN cannot hope to keep the sea lanes open for even a few days against the Indian Navy.
As well as air-defence frigates and subs, BN needs a dedicated naval squadron of strike fighters that can carry long-range anti-ship missiles in order to put some more fear into the Indians if they want to impose a naval blockade on Bangladesh.