Myanmar’s resistance fighters made significant progress last year against one of the country’s most formidable armies in Southeast Asia, relying on a fleet of isolated drones. But now, the strategy of using drones in war is changing. The country’s ruling junta is increasingly believed to be using Chinese-made commercial drones as weapons against rebels. Such information has emerged in a report of the British news agency Reuters.
A 31-year-old rebel fighter identified as Ta Yoke Gyi said the Myanmar junta has started using armed drones since the beginning of the year. Recently his team downed a drone, from the parts of which they realized it was made with Chinese parts and converted for combat.
He also said that some soldiers of their forces were injured in the drone attack. Rebel fighters in other parts of Myanmar have also spoken out about similar drone strikes.
On the use of drones in the civil war, resistance fighters, analysts and officials in a regional country say the junta is using Chinese commercial drones to drop locally made bombs. However, the junta spokesperson did not comment on the matter.
Rebel Ta Yoke Gyi was once a long-distance bus driver. But after ousting the elected government in 2021, thousands of youths, angered by the junta’s repression, took up arms. A unit under his command, the Angry Bird Drone Rangers, initially conducted patrolling operations using Chinese DGI drones. Later they were able to develop drones that could carry locally produced bombs.
Mi Zhao Wu, executive director of the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security, said the Myanmar junta has acquired thousands of Chinese commercial drones and is equipping them with locally made weapons.
Myanmar’s military has ordered the purchase of 12 armed drones from China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s arms transfer database.
The rebels said that the army is not using these military drones in attack operations. Instead, they are using armed commercial drones. The junta’s army has started using more drones since the drone attacks on rebel fighters from three ethnic groups during ‘Operation 1027’.
Analysts say this new trend of drone warfare in Myanmar could affect the course of the civil war. Rebels have lost their primary advantage in using drones. Now both sides are using drones. Although the future of the ongoing civil war is unknown, these drones may become important in determining it.
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