Bangladesh’s VT-5 vs India’s Zorawar: Riverine Manoeuvre and the New Light Armour Equation

Reading Time: 4 minutes In the Bengal delta and North-East India–Bangladesh theatre, armoured warfare is shaped less by open plains and more by waterways, causeways and alluvial terrain. Light tanks were once thought to hold the advantage in such conditions — until the Bangladesh Army’s riverine engineering capability changed the equation entirely. With up to 70 MLC-class bridging systems and dedicated riverine engineer formations equipped with landing craft and ferries, Bangladesh can now project and sustain its VT-5 light tanks across complex terrain at operational tempo. This development has profound implications for the balance between Bangladesh’s Chinese-made VT-5 and the Indian Army’s indigenously developed Zorawar light tank. Operational Overview The Bangladesh Army’s mechanised forces have evolved from route-bound formations into highly mobile riverine-capable elements. Their doctrine now fuses traditional armoured manoeuvre with amphibious and bridging operations, leveraging specialist engineer formations that can create multiple crossing points within hours. By contrast,