Well 2 Indonesian subs are also 40 years old but they are still maintained properly, modernized, and can still submerge and launch torpedos. I think we need to see the extend of that refurbishment to know whether that submarine is indeed capable to attack or just being bought for training purposes before new submarines are bought. Singapore was also doing the same method in the past.
Yup, I also like the idea to prioritize the economy first, I also think India is not going to attack Bangladesh. I believe they dont like the idea to add another 160 million Muslim to become their citizen which can give more weight to their own Muslim political power. Bangladesh itself doesnt have much land relatively to their big population, so this also make India interest to invade Bangladesh is very very low.
In the mean time Myanmar GDP is still small and you guys have both greater GDP and also huge population compared to them to sustain full scale war if it ever happen. I would say you guys will be able to get huge land, particularly if you do the all out war, not just in short period of time, similar like how Nazi did invasion in Europe. There will be huge casualties of course if you chose that way.
Despite so, getting more land is not really interesting anymore after industrialization and global trade become the source of economic development in Todays modern time, unlike in the past period where agriculture still one of the main source to get prosperity. I think Bangladesh will try to solve their land scarcity problem by trying to build more apartment and mimic city development happening in Singapore.
I also want to see my country, Indonesia, maintaining our current defense budget until 2024 and focus more on economy, education, and others. It is fool not to do it while the world is quite peaceful and most nations nowadays prefer trade and industrialization to grow the economy than attacking their neighbor to get more land and resources.
I would say Today competition is in economy and technology while defense budget should be kept under 1 percent of GDP. There is also thinking among Indonesian planner nowadays to make a law that force defense ministry to allocate 5 % of their budget for R&D. It is a good step if we really can make the law.