Myanmar Army

Ground forces branch of the armed forces of Myanmar

"Burmese Army" redirects here. For other uses, see Burma Army (disambiguation).

Myanmar Army

တပ်မတော် (ကြည်း) (Burmese)
lit. 'Tatmadaw (Kyi)'
'Armed Forces (Army)'

Emblem of the Myanmar Army[a][1]

Founded| 1945; 80 years ago (1945)
Country|  Myanmar
Type| Army
Role| Ground warfare
Size|

* Active personnel: 150,000[2]
* Reserve personnel: 20,000[3]
* Paramilitary personnel: 55,000[4]
* Draftees: ~30,000 (estimates of the ninth batch of the service)
* Reserves: Border Guard Forces (23 battalions)[5] People's militia groups (46 groups)[5] University Training Corps (5 corps)[6]

Part of|  Myanmar Armed Forces
Nickname(s)| Tatmadaw (Kyi)
Motto(s)|

* ရဲသော်မသေ၊ သေသော်ငရဲမလား။ ("If you are brave, you will not die, and if you die, hell will not come to you.")
* ရဲရဲတက်၊ ရဲရဲတိုက်၊ ရဲရဲချေမှုန်း။ ("Bravely charge, bravely fight, and bravely annihilate.")
* လေ့လာပါ၊ လေ့ကျင့်ပါ၊ လိုက်နာပါ။ ("Study, Practice and Follow Up.")
* တပ်မတော်အင်အားရှိမှ တိုင်းပြည်အင်အားရှိမည်။ ("Only when the military is strong will the nation be strong.")
* အသက်သွေးချွေး စဉ်မနှေးပေးဆပ်သည်မှာတပ်မတော်ပါ။ ("Never hesitating always ready to sacrifice blood and sweat is the Tatmadaw.)"
* တပ်နှင့်ပြည်သူမြဲကြည်ဖြူ သွေးခွဲလာသူတို့ရန်သူ။ ("Military and the people join in eternal unity, anyone attempting to divide them is our enemy.")
* တစ်သွေးတည်း၊ အသံတစ်သံ၊ အမိန့်တစ်ခု။ ("One blood, one voice, one command.")
* တပ်မတော်သည်အမျိုးသားရေးကိုဘယ်တော့မှသစ္စာမဖောက်။ ("The military shall never betray the national cause.")
* တပ်နှင့်ပြည်သူ လက်တွဲကူပြည်ထောင်စုဖြိုခွဲသူမှန်သမျှချေမှုန်းကြ။ ("Military and the people, cooperate and crush all those harming the union.")
* စည်းကမ်းရှိမှတိုးတက်မည်။ (Only when there is discipline will there be progress.")
* အမိနိုင်ငံတော်ကိုချစ်ပါ။ ဥပဒေကိုလးစားပါ။ ("Love your motherland. Respect the law.")

Colours|

* Olive green
* Light green
* Red
* Desert

Anniversaries| 27 March 1945
Engagements|

* Indochina theater of World War II
* Burma campaign
* Japanese invasion
* Allies recapture
* Internal conflict in Myanmar
* Rohingya conflict
* Kuomintang invasion
* Communist insurgency
* Karen conflict
* Battle of Insein
* Maw Pokay incident
* Siege of Manerplaw
* Battle of Kawmoora
* Border skirmishes
* Kachin conflict
* 2009 Kokang incident
* 2015 Kokang offensive
* Muse offensive
* Conflict in Rakhine State (2016–present)
* Operation Sunrise (2019)
* Myanmar civil war (2021–present)
* Chin theater
* Battle of Mindat
* Battle of Thantlang
* Battle of Loikaw (2021)
* Battle of Loikaw (2022)
* Operation 1027
* Battle of Laukkai
* Battle of Maungdaw
* Operation Taungthaman
* Rakhine offensive
* Kachin offensive(2024)
* Battle of Kawkareik
* Siege of Myawaddy

Commanders
Commander-in-Chief (Army)|  Senior General Min Aung Hlaing
Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services and Commander-in-Chief (Army)|  Vice-Senior General Soe Win
Spokesperson of the Commander-in-Chief (Army)|  Major General Zaw Min Tun
Notable
commanders|

* Major General Aung San[7]
* General Ne Win[8]
* General Bo Let Ya[9]
* Lieutenant General Smith Dun[10]
* General Kyaw Htin[11]
* General San Yu[12]
* General Thura Tin Oo[13][14]
* General Khin Nyunt
* Vice-Senior General Maung Aye[15]
* Vice-Senior General Soe Win[16]
* Senior General Saw Maung
* Senior General Than Shwe
* Senior General Min Aung Hlaing

Insignia
Flag of the Myanmar Army|
Shoulder sleeve of Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Army|
Shoulder sleeve infantry and light infantry|
Former flag (1948–1994)|

Military unit

This article contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script.

The Myanmar Army (Burmese: တပ်မတော်(ကြည်း); pronounced [taʔmədɔ̀ tɕí]) is the largest branch of the Tatmadaw, the armed forces of Myanmar, and has the primary responsibility of conducting land-based military operations. The Myanmar Army maintains the second largest active force in Southeast Asia after the People's Army of Vietnam.[17] It has clashed against ethnic and political insurgents since its inception in 1948.

The force is headed by the Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar Army, currently Vice-Senior General Soe Win, concurrently Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services, with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing as the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services. The highest rank in the Myanmar Army is Senior General, equivalent to field marshal in Western armies and is currently held by Min Aung Hlaing after being promoted from Vice-Senior General. With Major General Zaw Min Tun serving as the official spokesperson for the Myanmar Army.

In 2011, following a transition from military government to civilian parliamentary government, the Myanmar Army imposed a military draft on all citizens: all males from age 18 to 35 and all females from 18 to 27 years of age can be drafted into military service for two years as enlisted personnel in time of national emergency. The ages for professionals are up to 45 for men and 35 for women for three years service as commissioned and non-commissioned officers.

The Government Gazette reported that 1.8 trillion kyat (about US$2 billion), or 23.6 percent of the 2011 budget was for military expenditures.[18]

## Brief history

[edit]

Burmese troops surveying the Burma–China border, circa April 1954, on the lookout for Chinese Nationalist troops who fled to Burma following their defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

### British and Japanese rule

[edit]

In the late 1930s, during the period of British rule, a few Myanmar organizations or parties formed an alliance named Burma's Htwet Yet (Liberation) Group, one of them being Dobama Asiayone. Since most of the members were Communist, they wanted help from Chinese Communists; but when Thakhin Aung San and a partner secretly went to China for help, they only met with a Japanese general and made an alliance with Japanese Army. In the early 1940s, Aung San and other 29 participants secretly went for the military training under Japanese Army and these 30 people are later known as the "30 Comrades" in Myanmar history and can be regarded as the origin of the modern Myanmar Army.

When the Japanese invasion of Burma was ready, the 30 Soldiers recruited Myanmar people in Thailand and founded Burmese Independence Army (BIA), which was the first phase of Myanmar Army. In 1942, BIA assisted Japanese Army in their conquest of Burma, which succeeded. After that, Japanese Army changed BIA to Burmese Defense Army (BDA), which was the second phase. In 1943, Japan officially declared Burma an independent nation, but the new Burmese government did not possess de facto rule over the country.

While assisting the British Army in 1945, the Myanmar Army entered into its third phase, as the Patriotic Burmese Force (PBF), and the country became under British rule again. Afterwards, the structure of the army fell under British authority; hence, for those who were willing to serve the nation but not in that army, General Aung San organized the People's Comrades Force.

### Post-Independence era

[edit]

Myanmar Army Honour Guards saluting the arrival of the Thai delegation in October 2010

At the time of Myanmar's independence in 1948, the Tatmadaw was weak, small and disunited. Cracks appeared along the lines of ethnic background, political affiliation, organisational origin and different services. Its unity and operational efficiency was further weakened by the interference of civilians and politicians in military affairs, and the perception gap between the staff officers and field commanders.

In accordance with the agreement reached at Kandy Conference in September 1945, the Tatmadaw was reorganised by incorporating the British Burma Army and the Patriotic Burmese Forces. The officer corps shared by ex-PBF officers and officers from British Burma Army and Army of Burma Reserve Organisation (ARBO). The colonial government also decided to form what were known as "Class Battalions" based on ethnicity. There were a total of 15 rifle battalions at the time of independence and four of them were made up of former members of PBF. All influential positions within the War Office and commands were manned with non-former PBF Officers.

Composition of the Tatmadaw in 1948  Battalion  | Composition

|

No. 1 Burma Rifles | Bamar (Burma Military Police)
No. 2 Burma Rifles | Karen majority + other Non-Bamar Nationalities (commanded by then Lieutenant Colonel Saw Chit Khin [Karen officer from British Burma Army])
No. 3 Burma Rifles | Bamar / former members of Patriotic Burmese Forces
No. 4 Burma Rifles | Bamar / former members of Patriotic Burmese Force – Commanded by then Lieutenant Colonel Ne Win
No. 5 Burma Rifles | Bamar / former members of Patriotic Burmese Force
No. 6 Burma Rifles | Bamar / former members of Patriotic Burmese Force
No. 1 Karen Rifles | Karen / former members of British Burma Army and ABRO
No. 2 Karen Rifles | Karen / former members of British Burma Army and ABRO
No. 3 Karen Rifles | Karen / former members of British Burma Army and ABRO
No. 1 Kachin Rifles | Kachin / former members of British Burma Army and ABRO
No. 2 Kachin Rifles | Kachin / former members of British Burma Army and ABRO
No. 1 Chin Rifles | Chin / former members of British Burma Army and ABRO
No. 2 Chin Rifles | Chin / former members of British Burma Army and ABRO
No. 4 Burma Regiment | Gurkha
Chin Hill Battalion | Chin

## Formation and structure

[edit]

The army has always been by far the largest service in Myanmar and has always received the lion's share of the defence budget.[19][20] It has played the most prominent part in Myanmar's struggle against the 40 or more insurgent groups since 1948 and acquired a reputation as a tough and resourceful military force. In 1981, it was described as 'probably the best army in Southeast Asia, apart from Vietnam's'.[21] The judgement was echoed in 1983, when another observer noted that "Myanmar's infantry is generally rated as one of the toughest, most combat seasoned in Southeast Asia".[22] In 1985, a foreign journalist with the rare experience of seeing Burmese soldiers in action against ethnic insurgents and narco-armies was "thoroughly impressed by their fighting skills, endurance and discipline".[23] Other observers during that period characterised the Myanmar Army as "the toughest, most effective light infantry jungle force now operating in Southeast Asia".[24] Even the Thai people, not known to praise the Burmese lightly, have described the Myanmar Army as "skilled in the art of jungle warfare".[25]

### Organisation

[edit]

The Myanmar Army had reached some 370,000 active troops of all ranks in 2000. There were 337 infantry battalions, including 266 light infantry battalions as of 2000. Although the Myanmar Army's organisational structure was based upon the regimental system, the basic manoeuvre and fighting unit is the battalion, known as Tat Yinn (တပ်ရင်း) in Burmese. This is composed of a headquarters company and four rifle companies Tat Khwe (တပ်ခွဲ) with three rifle platoons Tat Su (တပ်စု) each; headquarters company has medical, transport, logistics, and signals units; a heavy weapons company including mortar, machine gun, and recoilless gun platoons. Each battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel Du Ti Ya Bo Hmu Gyi or Du Bo Hmu Gyi with a major (Bo Hmu) as second in command. In 1966 structure, ကဖ/၇၀(၈)/၆၆, a battalion has an authorised strength of 27 Officers and 750 Other Ranks, totaling at 777.[26] Light infantry battalions in the Myanmar Army have much lower establishment strength of around 500; this often leads to these units being mistakenly identified by observers as under-strength infantry battalions. Both Infantry Battalions and Light Infantry Battalions were reorganised as 857 men units, 31 Officers and 826 Other Ranks, in 2001 under structure of ကဖ/၇၀-ဆ/၂၀၀၁. However, currently, most battalions are badly undermanned and have less than 150 men in general.[27][28]

With its significantly increased personnel numbers, weaponry, and mobility, today's Tatmadaw Kyi (တပ်မတော်(ကြည်း)) is a formidable conventional defence force for the Union of Myanmar. Troops ready for combat duty have at least doubled since 1988. Logistics infrastructure and artillery fire support have been greatly increased. Its newly acquired military might was apparent in the Tatmadaw's dry season operations against Karen National Union (KNU) strongholds in Manerplaw and Kawmoora. Most of the casualties at these battles were the result of intense and heavy bombardment by the Myanmar Army. The Myanmar Army is now much larger than it was before 1988, it is more mobile and has greatly improved armour, artillery, and air defence inventories. Its C3I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence) systems have been expanded and refined. It is developing larger and more integrated, self-sustained formations to improve coordinated action by different combat arms. The army may still have relatively modest weaponry compared to its larger neighbours, but it is now in a much better position to deter external aggression and respond to such a threat should it ever arise, although child soldiers may not perform very well in combating with enemies.[29]

### Expansion

[edit]

The first army division to be formed after the 1988 military coup was the No. (11) Light Infantry Division (LID) in December 1988 with Colonel Win Myint as commander. In March 1990, a new regional military command was created in Monywa with Brigadier Kyaw Min as commander and named the North-Western Regional Military Command. A year later, 101st LID was formed in Pakokku with Colonel Saw Tun as commander. Two Regional Operations Commands (ROC) were formed in Myeik and Loikaw to improve command and control. They were commanded respectively by Brigadier Soe Tint and Brigadier Maung Kyi. March 1995 saw a dramatic expansion of the Tatmadaw as it established 11 Military Operations Commands (MOC)s in that month. MOC are similar to mechanised infantry divisions in Western armies, each with 10 regular infantry battalions (Chay Hlyin Tatyin), a headquarters, and organic support units including field artillery. In 1996, two new RMC were opened, Coastal Region RMC was opened in Myeik with Brigadier Sit Maung as commander and Triangle Region RMC in Kengtung with Brigadier Thein Sein as commander. Three new ROCs were created in Kalay, Bhamo and Mongsat. In late 1998, two new MOCs were created in Bokepyin and Mongsat.[30]

The most significant expansion after the infantry in the army was in armour and artillery. Beginning in 1990, the Tatmadaw procured 18 T-69II main battle tanks and 48 T-63 amphibious light tanks from China. Further procurements were made, including several hundred Type 85 and Type 92 armoured personnel carriers (APC). By the beginning of 1998, the Tatmadaw had about 100 T-69II main battle tanks, a similar number of T-63 amphibious light tanks, and several T-59D tanks. These tanks and armoured personnel carriers were distributed throughout five armoured infantry battalions and five tank battalions and formed the first armoured division of the Tatmadaw as the 71st Armoured Operations Command with its headquarters in Pyawbwe.

### Bureau of Special Operations (BSO)

[edit]

Bureau of Special Operations

The Bureau of Special Operations (ကာကွယ်ရေးဌာန စစ်ဆင်ရေး အထူးအဖွဲ့) in the Myanmar Army are high-level field units equivalent to field armies in Western terms and consist of two or more regional military commands (RMC) commanded by a lieutenant general and six staff officers.

The units were introduced under the General Staff Office on 28 April 1978 and 1 June 1979. In early 1978, the Chairman of BSPP, General Ne Win, visited the Northeastern Command Headquarters in Lashio to receive a briefing about Burmese Communist Party (BCP) insurgents and their military operations. He was accompanied by Brigadier General Tun Ye from the Ministry of Defence. Brigadier General Tun Ye was the regional commander of the Eastern Command for three years and before that he served in Northeastern Command areas as commander of Strategic Operation Command (SOC) and commander of Light Infantry Divisions for four years. As BCP military operations were spread across three Regional Military Command (RMC) areas (Northern, Eastern, and Northeastern), Brigadier General Tun Ye was the most informed commander about the BCP in the Myanmar Army at the time. At the briefing, General Ne Win was impressed by Brigadier General Tun Ye and realised that co-ordination among various Regional Military Commands (RMC) was necessary; thus, decided to form a bureau at the Ministry of Defence.

Originally, the bureau was for "special operations", wherever they were, that needed co-ordination among various Regional Military Commands (RMC). Later, with the introduction of another bureau, there was a division of command areas. The BSO-1 was to oversee the operations under the Northern Command, Northeastern Command, the Eastern Command, and the Northwestern Command. BSO-2 was to oversee operations under the Southeastern Command, Southwestern Command, Western Command and Central Command.

Initially, the chief of the BSO had the rank of brigadier general. The rank was upgraded to major general on 23 April 1979. In 1990, it was further upgraded to lieutenant general. Between 1995 and 2002, Chief of Staff (Army) jointly held the position of Chief of BSO. However, in early 2002, two more BSO were added to the General Staff Office; therefore there were altogether four BSOs. The fifth BSO was established in 2005 and the sixth in 2007.

Currently there are six Bureaus of Special Operations in the Myanmar order of battle.[31]

Regional Military Commands in 2010 Bureau of Special Operations  | Regional Military Commands (RMC)  | Chief of Bureau of Special Operations  | Notes

|
|
|

Bureau of Special Operations 1  | Central Command
Northwestern Command
Northern Command  | Lt. Gen. Ko Ko Oo |
Bureau of Special Operations 2  | Northeastern Command
Eastern Command
Triangle Region Command
Eastern Central Command  | Lt. Gen. Naing Naing Oo  |
Bureau of Special Operations 3  | Southwestern Command
Southern Command
Western Command | Lt. Gen. Phone Myat  |
Bureau of Special Operations 4  | Coastal Command
Southeastern Command  | Lt. Gen. Nyunt Win Swe |
Bureau of Special Operations 5  | Yangon Command  | Lt. Gen. Thet Pon |
Bureau of Special Operations 6  | Naypyidaw Command  | Lt. Gen. Tay Za Kyaw |

### Regional Military Commands (RMC)

[edit]

For a better command and communication, the Tatmadaw formed a Regional Military Commands (တိုင်း စစ်ဌာနချုပ်) structure in 1958. Until 1961, there were only two regional commands, they were supported by 13 infantry brigades and an infantry division. In October 1961, new regional military commands were opened and leaving only two independent infantry brigades.

A total of 517 infantry and light infantry battalions are commanded by the Regional Military Commands, and organised under the direct control of RMCs, into Military Operation Commands, Light Infantry Divisions and Tactical Operations Commands. Additionally, nationwide there are 100 Artillery Battalions, 24 Armoured/tank Battalions and 9 Missile Battalions.[32]

RMCs are similar to corps formations in Western armies. The RMCs, commanded by major general, are managed through a framework of Bureau of Special Operations (BSOs), which are equivalent to field army group in Western terms.[citation needed].

Regional Military Command (RMC)  | Badge  | States & Regions  | Headquarters  | Strength[32] | Notes

|
|
|
|
|

Northern Command

(မြောက်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Kachin State | Myitkyina | 46 Infantry Battalions plus an additional 3 Battalions as Border Guard Force units  |
Northeastern Command

(အရှေ့မြောက်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Northern Shan State | Lashio | 45 Infantry Battalions  | Captured by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army on 3 August 2024. With ceasefire deal brokered by China, MNDAA forces retreated and Tatmadaw forces re-entered into city in 17 April. [33]
Eastern Command

(အရှေ့ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Southern Shan State and Kayah State | Taunggyi | 35 Infantry Battalions
plus an additional 2 Battalions as Border Guard Force units  |
Southeastern Command

(အရှေ့တောင်တိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Mon State and Kayin State | Mawlamyine | 56 Infantry Battalions plus an additional 13 Battalions as Border Guard Force units  |
Southern Command

(တောင်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Bago and Magwe Regions  | Toungoo | 32 Infantry Battalions  |
Western Command

(အနောက်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Rakhine State and Chin State | Ann | 43 Infantry Battalions  | Captured by the Arakan Army on 20 December 2024. 33 Battalions have been captured by the National Resistance by the end of 2024
Southwestern Command

(အနောက်တောင်တိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Ayeyarwady Region | Pathein | 11 Infantry Battalions  |
Northwestern Command

(အနောက်မြောက်တိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Sagaing Region | Monywa | 49 Infantry Battalions  |
Yangon Command

(ရန်ကုန်တိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Yangon Region | Mayangone Township-Kone-Myint-Thar  | 41 Infantry Battalions  |
Coastal Region Command

(ကမ်းရိုးတန်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Tanintharyi Region | Myeik | 45 Infantry Battalions  |
Triangle Region Command

(တြိဂံတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Eastern Shan State | Kyaingtong (Kengtung)  | 40 Infantry Battalions plus an additional 4 Battalions as Border Guard Force units  |
Central Command

(အလယ်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Mandalay Region | Mandalay | 25 Infantry Battalions  |
Naypyidaw Command

(နေပြည်တော်တိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Naypyidaw | Pyinmana | Formed in 2006 – 18 Infantry Battalions  |
Eastern Central Command

(အရှေ့အလယ်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)

|  | Middle Shan State | Kholam[34] | Formed in 2011 – 31 Infantry Battalions  |

#### Commanders of Regional Military Commands

[edit]

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|

Regional Military Command (RMC)  | Established  | First Commander  | Current Commander  | Notes

|
|
|
|

Eastern Command | 1961 | Brigadier General San Yu | Major General Zaw Min Latt | Initially in 1961, San Yu was appointed as Commander of Eastern Command but was moved to NW Command and replaced with Col. Maung Shwe then.
Southeastern Command | 1961 | Brigadier General Sein Win | Brigadier General Soe Min | In 1961 when SE Command was formed, Sein Win was transferred from former Southern Command but was moved to Central Command and replaced with Thaung Kyi then.
Central Command | 1961 | Colonel Thaung Kyi | Major General Kyi Khaing | Original NW Command based at Mandalay was renamed Central Command in March 1990 and original Central Command was renamed Southern Command
Northwestern Command | 1961 | Brigadier General Kyaw Min | Major General Than Htike | Southern part of original Northwestern Command in Mandalay was renamed Central Command in March 1990 and northern part of original NW Command was renamed NW Command in 1990.
Southwestern Command | 1961 | Colonel Kyi Maung | Brigadier General Wai Linn | Kyi Maung was sacked in 1963 and was imprisoned a few times. He became Deputy Chairman of NLD in the 1990s.
Yangon Command | 1969 | Colonel Thura Kyaw Htin | Major General Zaw Hein | Formed as Naypyidaw Command in 1963 with deputy commander and some staff officers from Central Command. Reformed and renamed Yangon Command on 1 June 1969.
Western Command | 1969 | Colonel Hla Tun | Brigadier General Kyaw Swar Oo |
Northeastern Command | 1972 | Colonel Aye Ko | Major General Soe Tint |
Northern Command | 1947 | Brigadier Ne Win | Brigadier General Aung Zaw Htwe | Original Northern Command was divided into Eastern Command and NW Command in 1961. Current Northern Command was formed in 1969 as a part of reorganisation and is formed northern part of previous NW Command
Southern Command | 1947 | Brigadier Saw Kya Doe | Brigadier General Kyi Theik | Original Southern Command in Mandalay was renamed Central Command in March 1990
Triangle Region Command | 1996 | Brigadier General Thein Sein | Major General Aung Khaing Win | Thein Sein later became Prime Minister and elected as president in 2011
Coastal Region Command | 1996 | Brigadier General Thiha Thura Thura Sit Maung | Major General Soe Min |
Naypyidaw Command | 2005 | Brigadier Wei Lwin | Major General Saw Than Hlaing |
Eastern Central Command | 2011 | Brigadier Mya Tun Oo | Major General Myo Min Tun |

### Regional Operations Commands (ROC)

[edit]

Regional Operations Commands (ROC) (ဒေသကွပ်ကဲမှု စစ်ဌာနချုပ်) are commanded by a brigadier general, are similar to infantry brigades in Western Armies. Each consists of 4 Infantry battalions (Chay Hlyin Tatyin), HQ and organic support units. Commander of ROC is a position between LID/MOC commander and tactical Operation Command (TOC) commander, who commands three infantry battalions. The ROC commander holds financial, administrative and judicial authority while the MOC and LID commanders do not have judicial authority.[20][35] ROC (Laukkai) was captured by MNDAA on Jan 5, 2024.

Regional Operation Command (ROC)  | Headquarters  | Strength  | Notes

|
|
|

Loikaw Regional Operations Command | Loikaw (လွိုင်ကော်) Kayah State  | 8 Infantry Battalions |
Laukkai Regional Operations Command | Laukkai (လောက်ကိုင်), Shan State  | 7 Infantry Battalions | Captured by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army on 5 January 2024
Kalay Regional Operations Command | Kalay (ကလေး), Sagaing Division  | 4 Infantry Battalions |
Sittwe Regional Operations Command | Sittwe (စစ်တွေ), Rakhine State  | 4 Infantry Battalions |
Pyay Regional Operations Command | Pyay (ပြည်), Bago Division  | 2 Infantry Battalions |
Tanai Regional Operations Command | Tanai (တနိုင်း), Kachin State  | 5 Infantry Battalions | Formerly ROC Bhamo
Wanhseng Regional Operations Command | Wanhseng, Shan State  |  | Formed in 2011[36]

### Military Operations Commands (MOC)

[edit]

Military Operations Commands (MOC) (စစ်ဆင်ရေးကွပ်ကဲမှုဌာနချုပ်), commanded by a brigadier-general are similar to Infantry Divisions in Western Armies. Each consists of 10 Mechanised Infantry battalions equipped with BTR-3 armoured personnel carriers, Headquarters and support units including field artillery batteries. These ten battalions are organised into three Tactical Operations Commands: one Mechanised Tactical Operations Command with BTR-3 armoured personnel carriers, and two Motorised Tactical Operations Command with EQ-2102 6x6 trucks.

MOC are equivalent to Light Infantry Divisions (LID) in the Myanmar Army order of battle as both command 10 infantry battalions through three TOC's (Tactical Operations Commands). However, unlike Light Infantry Divisions, MOC are subordinate to their respective Regional Military Command (RMC) Headquarters.[35] Members of MOC does not wear distinguished arm insignias and instead uses their respective RMC's arm insignias. For example, MOC-20 in Kawthaung wore the arm insignia of Coastal Region Military Command. No. (15) MOC and No. (9) MOC has been captured by AA. No. (16) MOC has been captured by MNDAA.

Military Operation Command (MOC)  | Headquarters  | Strength  | Notes

|
|
|

No. (1) Military Operations Command (MOC-1) | Kyaukme, Shan State | 11 Infantry Battalions | Captured by Ta'ang National Liberation Army on 5 August 2024.[37]
No. (2) Military Operations Command (MOC-2) | Mong Nawng, Shan State  | 11 Infantry Battalions |
No. (3) Military Operations Command (MOC-3) | Mogaung, Kachin State | 10 Infantry Battalions | Renamed as No. (3) Infantry Brigade[38]
No. (4) Military Operations Command (MOC-4) | Hpugyi, Yangon Region | 10 Infantry Battalions | Designated Airborne Division. Renamed as No. (4) Infantry Brigade[38]
No. (5) Military Operations Command (MOC-5) | Taungup, Rakhine State | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (6) Military Operations Command (MOC-6) | Pyinmana (ပျဉ်းမနား), Mandalay Region | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (7) Military Operations Command (MOC-7) | Pekon (ဖယ်ခုံ), Shan State  | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (8) Military Operations Command (MOC-8) | Dawei (ထားဝယ်), Tanintharyi Region | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (9) Military Operations Command (MOC-9) | Kyauktaw (ကျောက်တော်), Rakhine State  | 10 Infantry Battalions | Captured by Arakha Army on 10 February 2024.[39] Commanded by Brigadier General Zaw Min Htun.[40]
No. (10) Military Operations Command (MOC-10) | Kalay (ကျီကုန်း (ကလေးဝ)), Sagaing Region | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (12) Military Operations Command (MOC-12) | Kawkareik (ကော့ကရိတ်), Kayin State | 10 Infantry Battalions | Previously commanded by Brigadier General Aung Zaw Lin[41] Current Commander, Colonel Myo Min Htwe[42]
No. (13) Military Operations Command (MOC-13) | Bokpyin (ဘုတ်ပြင်း), Tanintharyi Region  | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (14) Military Operations Command (MOC-14) | Mong Hsat (မိုင်းဆတ်), Shan State  | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (15) Military Operations Command (MOC-15) | Buthidaung (ဘူးသီးတောင်), Rakhine State  | 10 Infantry Battalions | Captured by Arakha Army on 4 May 2024.[43]
No. (16) Military Operations Command (MOC-16) | Theinni (သိန်းနီ), Shan State  | 10 Infantry Battalions | Captured by the Three Brotherhood Alliance on 7 January 2024[44] Previously commanded by Brigadier General Thaw Zin Oo[41] Currently commanded by Colonel Maung Maung Lay. Unit renamed as No 16 Infantry Brigade[45]
No. (17) Military Operations Command (MOC-17) | Mong Pan (မိုင်းပန်), Shan State  | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (18) Military Operations Command (MOC-18) | Mong Hpayak (မိုင်းပေါက်), Shan State  | 11 Infantry Battalions |
No. (19) Military Operations Command (MOC-19) | Ye (ရေး), Mon State | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (20) Military Operations Command (MOC-20) | Kawthaung (ကော့သောင်း), Tanintharyi Region  | 10 Infantry Battalions |
No. (21) Military Operations Command (MOC-21) | Bhamo (ဗန်းမော်), Kachin State  | 8 Infantry Battalions |

### Light Infantry Divisions (LID)

[edit]

Light Infantry Division (ခြေမြန်တပ်မ or တမခ), commanded by a brigadier general, each with 10 Light Infantry Battalions organised under 3 Tactical Operations Commands, commanded by a Colonel (3 battalions each and 1 reserve), 1 Field Artillery Battalion, 1 Armour Squadron and other support units.[20][35]

These divisions were first introduced to the Myanmar Army in 1966 as rapid reaction mobile forces for strike operations. No. (77) Light Infantry Division was formed on 6 June 1966, followed by No. (88) Light Infantry Division and No. (99) Light Infantry Division in the two following years. No. (77) LID was largely responsible for the defeat of the Communist forces of the CPB (Communist Party of Burma) based in the forested hills of the central Bago Mountains in the mid-1970s. Three more LIDs were raised in the latter half of the 1970s (the No. (66), No. (44) and No. (55)) with their headquarters at Pyay, Aungban and Thaton. They were followed by another two LIDs in the period prior to the 1988 military coup (the No. (33) LID with headquarters at Sagaing and the No. (22) LID with headquarters at Hpa-An). No. (11) LID was formed in December 1988 with headquarters at Inndine, Bago Division and No. (101) LID was formed in 1991 with its headquarters at Pakokku.[20][35]

Each LID, commanded by Brigadier General (Bo hmu gyoke) level officers, consists of 10 light infantry battalions specially trained in counter-insurgency, jungle warfare, "search and destroy" operations against ethnic insurgents and narcotics-based armies. These battalions are organised under three Tactical Operations Commands (TOC; Nee byu har). Each TOC, commanded by a Colonel (Bo hmu gyi), is made up of three or more combat battalions, with command and support elements similar to that of brigades in Western armies. One infantry battalion is held in reserve. As of 2000, all LIDs have their own organic Field Artillery units. For example, 314th Field Artillery Battery is now attached to 44th LID. Some of the LID battalions have been given Parachute and Air Borne Operations training and two of the LIDs have been converted to mechanised infantry formation with divisional artillery, armoured reconnaissance and tank battalions[20]

LIDs are considered to be a strategic asset of the Myanmar Army, and after the 1990 reorganisation and restructuring of the Tatmadaw command structure, they are now directly answerable to Chief of Staff (Army).[20][35]

Light Infantry Division (LID)  | Badge  | Year formed  | Headquarters  | First commander  | Current commander  | Notes

|
|
|
|
|
|

No. (11) Light Infantry Division | 11th Light Infantry Division | 1988 | Inndine | Col. Win Myint | Brigadier General | Formed after 1988 military coup. Previous Commander, Brigadier General Min Min Htun (not to be confused with 101) was killed in action[40]
No. (22) Light Infantry Division | 22nd Light Infantry Division | 1987 | Hpa-An | Col. Tin Hla | Brigadier General Toe Win | Involved in crackdown of unarmed protestors during 8.8.88 democracy uprising
No. (33) Light Infantry Division | 33rd Light Infantry Division | 1984 | Mandalay/later Sagaing | Col. Kyaw Ba | Colonel Kyaw Set Myint | Involved in crackdown against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state[46]

Involved in the Kachin conflict

No. (44) Light Infantry Division | 44th Light Infantry Division | 1979 | Thaton | Col. Myat Thin | Colonel Soe Min Htet | Previou Commander, Brigadier General Aye Min Naung was killed after helicopter got shot down in 2023.
No. (55) Light Infantry Division | 55th Light Infantry Division | 1980 | Sagaing/later Kalaw | Col. Phone Myint | Colonel Aung Soe Min | Surrendered to the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army on 26 December 2023,[47] which included the Division Commander Brigadier General Zaw Myo Win[41]
No. (66) Light Infantry Division | 66th Light Infantry Division | 1976 | Innma | Col. Taung Zar Khaing | Colonel Kyaw Soe Lin |
No. (77) Light Infantry Division | 77th Light Infantry Division | 1966 | Hmawbi/later Bago | Col. Tint Swe | Brigadier General Kyaw Kyaw Han | Surrendered to the PDF Forces on 10 April 2025[48] while they were trapped in an old military base left from WW2 in Inn Taw Township.
No. (88) Light Infantry Division | 88th Light Infantry Division | 1967 | Magway | Col. Than Tin | Brigadier General Aung Hein Win | Units of 88th LID were deployed in Yangon and other regions to crackdown on protesters in 2021[citation needed]
No. (99) Light Infantry Division | 99th Light Infantry Division | 1968 | Meiktila | Col. Kyaw Htin | Colonel Aung Kyaw Lwin | Involved in crackdown against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state[46]
No. (101) Light Infantry Division | 101st Light Infantry Division | 1991 | Pakokku | Col. Saw Tun | Colonel Myint Swe | Units of 101st LID were deployed during the purge of Military Intelligence faction in 2004.

Division Commander Brigadier General Min Min Htun was captured by TNLA[49]

No. (11) Light Infantry Division: The Division GOC Brigadier General Min Min Htun was killed on Feb 7, 2024, during skirmishes at Mrauk U. All 10 battalions/regiments under its command suffered heavy casualties and are no longer combat effective. The division has neither been reinforced nor rebuilt. It has withdrawn from action.[50]

No. (22) Light Infantry Division: The division, similar to No. (11), suffered heavy casualties in 2022. It withdrew from combat later and mostly operates as reserve. It is currently within Operation Aung Zeya.[51]

### Tactical Operation Commands

[edit]

Additionally, nationwide there are around 23 permanent Tactical Operation Commands,[32] which generally command a between two and four infantry battalions and a small number of support units which are all contiguous. Additional temporary Tactical Operation Commands may be headquartered at major fortified outposts to command specific battles.[52]

The permanent Tactical Operation Commands are:

Name  | Location  | Command  | Notes

|
|
|

Mongmit Tactical Operations Command  | Mongmit, North Shan State | Northern RMC  | Captured by the Kachin Independence Army on 31 July 2024
Puta-O Tactical Operations Command  | Puta-O, Kachin State | Northern RMC  |
Hakha Tactical Operations Command  | Hakha, Chin State | North-Western RMC  |
Matupi Tactical Operations Command  | Matupi, Chin State | North-Western RMC  | Captured by the Chin Brotherhood Alliance on 29 June 2024
Hkamti Tactical Operations Command  | Hkamti, Sagaing Region | North-Western RMC  |
Kutkai Tactical Operations Command  | Kutkai, North Shan State | North-Eastern RMC  | Captured by the Ta'ang National Liberation Army on 07 Jan 2024
Kunlong Tactical Operations Command  | Kunlong, North Shan State | North-Eastern RMC  | Captured by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army on 12 November 2023
Tangyan Tactical Operations Command  | Tangyan, North Shan State | North-Eastern RMC  |
Bawlakhe Tactical Operations Command  | Bawlakhe, Kayah State | Eastern RMC  |
Mongkhet Tactical Operations Command  | Mongkhet, South Shan State | Triangle Region RMC  |
Mongton Tactical Operations Command  | Mongton, South Shan State | Triangle Region RMC  |
Tachileik Tactical Operations Command  | Tachileik, South Shan State | Triangle Region RMC  |
Kunhing Tactical Operations Command  | Kunhing, Shan State | Central-Eastern RMC  |
Langkho Tactical Operations Command  | Langkho, Shan State | Central-Eastern RMC  |
Buthidaung Tactical Operations Command  | Buthidaung, Rakhine | Western RMC  | Captured by the Arakan Army on 18 May 2024
Mawyawaddy Tactical Operations Command  | Maungdaw, Rakhine | Western RMC  | Captured by the Arakan Army on 13 June 2024
Shwegyin Tactical Operations Command  | Shwegyin, Bago | Southern RMC  |
H'papun Tactical Operations Command  | H'papun, Kayin | South-Eastern RMC  |
Hlaingbwe Tactical Operations Command  | Hlaingbwe, Kayin | South-Eastern RMC  |
Kyainseikgyi Tactical Operations Command  | Kyainseikgyi, Kayin | South-Eastern RMC  |
Thin Gan Nyi Naung Tactical Operations Command  | Myawaddy, Kayin | South-Eastern RMC  | Captured by the Karen National Liberation Army on 30 March 2024
Kawthoung Tactical Operations Command  | Kawthoung, Tanintharyi | Coastal Region RMC  |
No. 3 Tactical Operations Command  | Yangon | Yagon RMC  |

### Missile, Artillery and armoured units

[edit]

Missile, artillery and armoured units were not used in an independent role, but were deployed in support of the infantry by the Ministry of Defence as required. The Directorate of Artillery and Armour Corps was also divided into separate corps in 2001. The Directorate of Artillery and Missile Corps was also divided into separate corps in 2009. A dramatic expansion of forces under these directorates followed with the equipment procured from China, Russia, Ukraine and India.[20] [35]

### Directorate of Missiles (Myanmar Missile Artillery)

[edit]

#### No(1) Missile Operational Command MOC(1)

[edit]

* HQ battalion
* 10 Missile Battalions

### Directorate of Artillery (Myanmar Artillery)

[edit]

Artillery Operation Command

No. 1 Artillery Battalion was formed in 1952 with three artillery batteries under the Directorate of Artillery Corps. A further three artillery battalions were formed in the late 1952. This formation remained unchanged until 1988. Since 2000, the Directorate of Artillery Corps has overseen the expansion of Artillery Operations Commands(AOC) from two to 10. Tatmadaw's stated intention is to establish an organic Artillery Operations Command in each of the 12 Regional Military Command Headquarters. Each Artillery Operation Command is composed of the following:[citation needed]

As of 2000, the Artillery wing of the Tatmadaw has about 60 battalions and 37 independent Artillery companies/batteries attached to various Regional Military Commands (RMC), Light Infantry Divisions (LID), Military Operation Command (MOC) and Regional Operation Command (ROC). For example, No. (314) Artillery Battery is under No. (44) LID, No. (326) Artillery Battery is attached to No. (5) MOC, No. (074) Artillery Battery is under the command of ROC (Bhamo) and No. (076) Artillery Battery is under North-Eastern RMC. Twenty of these Artillery battalions are grouped under No. (707) Artillery Operation Command (AOC) headquarters in Kyaukpadaung and No. (808) Artillery Operation Command (AOC) headquarters in Oaktwin, near Taungoo. The remaining 30 battalions, including 7 Anti-Aircraft artillery battalions are under the Directorate of Artillery Corps.[20] [35]

#### Artillery Operations Command (AOC)

[edit]

* HQ battalion
* 12 Artillery battalions:
* 6 Light Field artillery battalion equipped with 105 mm, 76 mm, 75 mm howitzers, field guns and mountain guns,
* 3 Medium Field Artillery battalion equipped with 155 mm, 130 mm, 122 mm howitzers and field guns,
* 1 Multiple Rocket Launcher battalion equipped with 122 mm and 240 mm MLRS, self-propelled and towed launchers,
* 1 Air Defence Artillery battalion with 37 mm, 57 mm Anti-Aircraft guns or SA 18 IGLAs) man portable surface-to-air missiles and
* 1 target acquisition battalion.
* support units

Light field artillery battalions consists of 3 field artillery batteries with 36 field guns or howitzers (12 guns per battery). Medium artillery battalions consists of 3 medium artillery batteries of 18 field guns or howitzers (6 guns per one battery).[citation needed] As of 2011, all field guns of Myanmar Artillery Corps are undergoing upgrade programs including GPS Fire Control Systems.

Artillery Operations Command (AOC)  | Headquarters  | Notes

|
|

No. (505) Artillery Operations Command | Myeik (မြိတ်) |
No. (707) Artillery Operations Command | Kyaukpadaung (ကျောက်ပန်းတောင်း) |
No. (606) Artillery Operations Command | Thaton (သထုံ) |
No. (808) Artillery Operations Command | Oktwin (အုပ်တွင်းမြို့) |
No. (909) Artillery Operations Command | Mong Khon\--Kengtung |
No. (901) Artillery Operations Command | Baw Net Gyi (ဘောနက်ကြီး--ပဲခူးတိုင်း) |
No. (902) Artillery Operations Command | Nawnghkio |
No. (903) Artillery Operations Command | Aungban |
No. (904) Artillery Operations Command | Mohnyin (မိုးညှင်း) |
No. (905) Artillery Operations Command | Padein\--Ngape |

### Directorate of Armour (Myanmar Armored Corps)

[edit]

No. 1 Armour Company and No. 2 Armour Company were formed in July 1950 under the Directorate of Armour and Artillery Corps with Sherman tanks, Stuart light tanks, Humber scout cars, Ferret armoured cars and Universal carriers. These two companies were merged on 1 November 1950 to become No. 1 Armour Battalion with headquarters in Mingalardon. On 15 May 1952 No. Tank Battalion was formed with 25 Comet tanks acquired from the United Kingdom. The Armour Corps within Myanmar Army was the most neglected one for nearly thirty years since the Tatmadaw had not procured any new tanks or armoured carriers since 1961.[citation needed]

Armoured divisions, known as Armoured Operations Command (AROC), under the command of Directorate of Armour Corps, were also expanded in number from one to two, each with four Armoured Combat battalions equipped with Infantry fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers, three tank battalions equipped with main battle tanks and three Tank battalions equipped with light tanks. [35] In mid-2003, Tamadaw acquired 139+ T-72 main battle tanks from Ukraine and signed a contract to build and equip a factory in Myanmar to produce and assemble 1,000 BTR armoured personnel carriers in 2004.[53] In 2006, the Government of India transferred an unspecified number of T-55 main battle tanks that were being phased out from active service to Tatmadaw along with 105 mm light field guns, armoured personnel carriers and indigenous HAL Light Combat Helicopters in return for Tatmadaw's support and co-operation in flushing out Indian insurgent groups operating from its soil.[54]

#### Armoured Operations Command (AROC)

[edit]

Armoured Operations Commands (AROC) are equivalent to Independent armoured divisions in western terms. Currently there are 5 Armoured Operations Commands under Directorate of Armoured Corps in the Tatmadaw order of battle. Tatmadaw planned to establish an AROC each in 7 Regional Military Commands.[citation needed] Typical armoured divisions in the Myanmar Army are composed of Headquarters, Three Armored Tactical Operations Command – each with one mechanised infantry battalion equipped with 44 BMP-1 or MAV-1 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Two Tank Battalions equipped with 44 main battle tanks each, one armoured reconnaissance battalion equipped with 32 Type-63A Amphibious Light Tanks, one field artillery battalion and a support battalion. The support battalion is composed of an engineer squadron, two logistic squadrons, and a signal company.[citation needed]

The Myanmar Army acquired about 150 refurbished EE-9 Cascavel armoured cars from an Israeli firm in 2005.[55] Classified in the army's service as a light tank, the Cascavel is currently deployed in the eastern Shan State and triangle regions near the Thai border.

Armoured Operations Command (ArOC)  | Headquarters  | Notes

|
|

No. (71) Armoured Operations Command | Pyawbwe (ပျော်ဘွယ်) |
No. (72) Armoured Operations Command | Ohntaw (အုန်းတော) |
No. (73) Armoured Operations Command | Malun (မလွန်) |
No. (74) Armoured Operation Command | Intaing (အင်းတိုင်) |
No. (75) Armoured Operations Command | Thagara (သာဂရ) |

### Office of the Chief of Air Defence (Myanmar Air Defence Artillery)

[edit]

Main article: Office of the Chief of Air Defence (Myanmar)

The Office of the chief of Air Defence (လေကြောင်းရန်ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့အရာရှိချုပ်ရုံး) is one of the major branches of Tatmadaw. It was established as the Air Defence Command in 1997, but was not fully operational until late 1999. It was renamed the Bureau of Air Defence in the early 2000s. In early 2000, Tatmadaw established the Myanmar Integrated Air Defence System (MIADS) (မြန်မာ့အလွှာစုံပေါင်းစပ်လေကြောင်းရန်ကာကွယ်ရေးစနစ်) with help from Russia and China. It is a tri-service bureau with units from all three branches of the armed forces. All air defence assets except the Army's anti-aircraft artillery battalions are integrated into the MIADS.[56]

### Directorate of Signals (Myanmar Signal Corps)

[edit]

Soon after the independence in 1948, Myanmar Signal Corps was formed with units from Burma Signals, also known as "X" Branch. It consisted HQ Burma Signals, Burma Signal Training Squadron (BSTS) and Burma Signals Squadron. HQ Burma Signals was located within War Office. BSTS based in Pyin Oo Lwin was formed with Operating Cipher Training Troop, Dispatch Rider Training Troop, Lineman Training Troop, Radio Mechanic Training Troop and Regimental Signals Training Troop. BSS, based in Mingalardon, had nine sections: Administration Troop, Maintenance Troop, Operating Troop, Cipher Troop, Lineman and Dispatch Rider Troop, NBSD Signals Troop, SBSD Signals Troop, Mobile Brigade Signals Toop and Arakan Signals Toop. The then Chief of Signal Staff Officer (CSO) was Lieutenant Colonel Saw Aung Din. BSTS and BSS were later renamed No. 1 Signal Battalion and No.1 Signal Training Battalion. In 1952, the Infantry Divisional Signals Regiment was formed and later renamed to No. 2 Signal Battalion. HQ Burma Signals was reorganised and became Directorate Signal and the director was elevated to the rank of Colonel. In 1956, No. 1 Signal Security Battalion was formed, followed by No. 3 Signal Battalion in November 1958 and No.4 Signal Battalion in October 1959.

In 1961, signal battalions were reorganised as No. 11 Signal Battalion under Northeastern Regional Military Command, No. 121 Signal Battalion under Eastern Command, No. 313 Signal Battalion under Central Command, No.414 Signal Battalion under Southwestern Command, and No. 515 Signal Battalion under Southeastern Command. No.1 Signal Training Battalion was renamed Burma Signal Training Depot (Baho-Setthweye-Tat).

By 1988, Directorate of Signals command one training depot, eight signal battalions, one signal security battalion, one signal store depot and two signal workshops. Signal Corps under Directorate of Signal further expanded during 1990 expansion and reorganisation of Myanmar Armed Forces. By 2000, a signal battalion is attached to each Regional Military Command and signal companies are now attached to Light Infantry Divisions and Military Operations Commands.

In 2000, Command, Control and Communication system of Myanmar Army has been substantially upgraded by setting up the military fibre optic communication network managed by Directorate of Signal throughout the country. Since 2002 all Myanmar Army Regional Military Command HQs used its own telecommunication system. Satellite communication links are also provided to forward-deployed infantry battalions. However, battle field communication systems are still poor. Infantry units are still using TRA 906 and PRM 4051 which were acquired from UK in the 1980s. Myanmar Army also uses the locally built TRA 906 Thura and Chinese XD-D6M radio sets. Frequency hopping handsets are fitted to all front line units.[57]

Between 2000 and 2005, Myanmar Army bought 50 units of Brett 2050 Advanced Tech radio set from Australia through third party from Singapore. Those units are distributed to ROCs in central & upper regions to use in counterinsurgency operations.[35]

### Directorate of Medical Services

[edit]

Main article: Directorate of Medical Services

At the time of independence in 1948, the medical corps has two Base Military Hospitals, each with 300 beds, in Mingalardon and Pyin Oo Lwin, a Medical Store Depot in Yangon, a Dental Unit and six Camp Reception Stations located in Myitkyina, Sittwe, Taungoo, Pyinmana, Bago and Meikhtila. Between 1958 and 1962, the medical corps was restructured and all Camp Reception Stations were reorganised into Medical Battalions.

In 1989, Directorate of Medical Services has significantly expanded along with the infantry. In 2007, there are two 1,000-bed Defence Services General Hospitals (Mingalardon and Naypyidaw), two 700-bed hospitals in Pyin Oo Lwin and Aung Ban, two 500-bed military hospitals in Meikhtila and Yangon, one 500-bed Defence Services Orthopedic Hospital in Mingalardon, two 300-bed Defence Services Obstetric, Gynecological and Children hospitals (Mingalardon and Naypyidaw), three 300-bed Military Hospitals (Myitkyina, Ann and Kengtung), eighteen 100-bed Military Hospitals (Mongphyet, Baan, Indaing, Bahtoo, Myeik, Pyay, Loikaw, Namsam, Lashio, Kalay, Mongsat, Dawei, Kawthaung, Laukkai, Thandaung, Magway, Sittwe, and Homalin), fourteen field medical battalions, which are attached to various Regional Military Commands throughout the country. Each Field Medical Battalion consists of 3 Field Medical Companies with 3 Field Hospital Units and a specialist team each. Health & Disease Control Unit (HDCU) is responsible for prevention, control & eradication of diseases.

Units  | Headquarter  | RMC

|
|

Medical Corps Centre | Hmawbi | Yangon Command
No.(1) Field Medical Battalion | Mandalay | Central Command
No.(2) Field Medical Battalion | Taunggyi | Eastern Command
No.(3) Field Medical Battalion | Taungoo | Southern Command
No.(4) Field Medical Battalion | Pathein | Southwestern Command
No.(5) Field Medical Battalion | Mawlamyaing | Southeastern Command
No.(6) Field Medical Battalion | Hmawbi | Yangon Command
No.(7) Field Medical Battalion | Monywa | Northwestern Command
No.(8) Field Medical Battalion | Sittwe | Western Command
No.(9) Field Medical Battalion | Mohnyin | Northern Command
No.(10) Field Medical Battalion | Lashio | Northeastern Command
No.(11) Field Medical Battalion | Bhamo | Northern Command
No.(12) Field Medical Battalion | Kengtung | Triangle Region Command
No.(13) Field Medical Battalion | Myeik | Coastal Region Command
No.(14) Field Medical Battalion | Taikkyi | Yangon Command
Health and Disease Control Unit | Mingaladon | Yangon Command

## Training

[edit]

Main article: Military Training in Myanmar

### Defence academies & colleges

[edit]

Academies  | Locations

|

National Defence College – NDC | Naypyidaw (နေပြည်တော်)
Defence Services Command and General Staff College – DSCGSC | Kalaw (ကလော)
Defence Services Academy – DSA | Pyin U Lwin (ပြင်ဦးလွင်)
Defence Services Technological Academy – DSTA | Pyin U Lwin (ပြင်ဦးလွင်)
Defence Services Medical Academy – DSMA | Yangon (ရန်ကုန်)
Military Institute of Nursing and Paramedical Science – MINP | Yangon (ရန်ကုန်)
Military Computer And Technological Institute – MCTI (Former Military Technological College-MTC, Pyin Oo Lwin | Hopong (ဟိုပုံး)

### Training schools

[edit]

Training Schools  | Locations

|

Officer Training School (OTS) | Bahtoo Station
Basic Army Combat Training School | Bahtoo Station
1st Army Combat Forces School | Bahtoo Station
2nd Army Combat Forces School | Fort Bayinnaung
Artillery Training School | Mone Tai
Armour Training School | Maing Maw
Electronic Warfare School | Pyin U Lwin
Engineer School | Pyin U Lwin
Information Warfare School | Yangon
Air, Land and Paratroops Training School | Hmawbi
Special Forces School | Fort Ye Mon

## Ranks and insignia

[edit]

Main article: Military ranks of Myanmar

### Commissioned officer ranks

[edit]

The rank insignia of commissioned officers.

Rank group  | General / flag officers  | Senior officers  | Junior officers

|
|
|

Myanmar Army

* v
* t
* e

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီး
Builʻkhyupʻmhūʺkrīʺ | ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီး
Dutiya builʻkhyupʻmhūʺkrīʺ | ဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး
Builʻkhyupʻkrīʺ | ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး
Dutiya builʻkhyupʻkrīʺ | ဗိုလ်ချုပ်
Builʻkhyupʻ | ဗိုလ်မှူးချုပ်
Builʻmhūʺkhyupʻ | ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီး
Builʻmhūʺkrīʺ | ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီး
Dutiya builʻmhūʺkrīʺ | ဗိုလ်မှူး
Builʻmhūʺ | ဗိုလ်ကြီး
Builʻkrīʺ | ဗိုလ်
Builʻ | ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်
Dutiyabuilʻ

### Other ranks

[edit]

The rank insignia of non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel.

Rank group  | Senior NCOs  | Junior NCOs  | Enlisted

|
|
|

Myanmar Army

* v
* t
* e

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | No insignia | No insignia
အရာခံဗိုလ်
’araākhaṃ bauilaʻ | ဒုတိယအရာခံဗိုလ်
dautaiya ’araākhaṃ bauilaʻ | တပ်ခွဲတပ်ကြပ်ကြီး
tapaʻ khavai tapaʻ karpaʻ karīʺ | တပ်ကြပ်ကြီး
tapaʻ karpaʻ karīʺ | တပ်ကြပ်
tapaʻ karpaʻ | ဒုတိယတပ်ကြပ်
dautaiya tapaʻ karpaʻ | တပ်သား
tapaʻ saāʺ | တပ်သားသစ်
tapaʻ saāʺ sacaʻ

## Order of battle

[edit]

* 14 × Regional Military Commands (RMC) organised in 6 Bureau of Special Operations (BSO)
* 6 × Regional Operations Commands (ROC)
* 20 × Military Operations Commands (MOC) including 1 × Airborne Infantry Division
* 10 × Light Infantry Divisions (LID)
* 5 × Armoured Operation Commands (AOC) (Each with 6 Tank Battalions and 4 Armoured Infantry Battalions (IFVs/APCs).)
* 10 × Artillery Operation Commands (AOC) (with of 113 Field Artillery Battalions)
* 9 × Air Defence Operation Commands
* 1 × Missile Operation Commands
* 40+ × Military Affairs Security Companies (MAS Units replaces former Military Intelligence Units after the disbandment of the Directorate of Defence Service Intelligence (DDSI))
* 45 × Advanced Signal Battalions
* 54 × Field Engineer Battalions
* 4 × Armoured Engineer Battalions
* 14 × Medical Battalions[35]

## Equipment

[edit]

See also: List of equipment of the Myanmar Army

## See also

[edit]

* Myanmar portal

* Ne Win
* Than Shwe
* Min Aung Hlaing
* Soe Win (general)
* Khin Nyunt
* Aung San
* Maung Aye
* Saw Maung
* Zaw Min Tun (general)
* Tatmadaw
* Myanmar Navy
* Myanmar Air Force
* Military Intelligence of Myanmar
* Myanmar Police Force

## Note

[edit]

1. ^ This representative emblem is also the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI) of the office of Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar Army.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Official site of Commander-in-Chief's Office of the Myanmar Armed Forces". Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
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14. ^ "သူရဦးတင်ဦး - ပြည်သူလွမ်းနေရမယ့် ရှားရှားပါးပါးကာချုပ်ဟောင်း- DVB News". YouTube. 3 June 2024.
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24. ^ Asiaweek 21 February 1992
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30. ^ WP 342. Australian National University
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32. ^ a b c "How business finances the crimes of the Myanmar military: MEHL Files | Justice For Myanmar". www.justiceformyanmar.org. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
33. ^ Irrawaddy, The (19 April 2025). "MNDAA Hands Lashio Back to Myanmar Junta". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
34. ^ "MEETING WITH TATMADAWMEN: SENIOR GENERAL HELD MEETINGS AT MONG PING AND KHO LAM". 18 February 2022.
35. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Myoe, Maung Aung: Building the tatmadaw – Myanmar Armed Forces Since 1948, Institute of SouthEast Asian Studies. ISBN 978-981-230-848-1
36. ^ "Junta Expands Military". Archived from the original on 2 March 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
37. ^ |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/war-against-the-junta/tnla-completes-capture-of-kyaukme-town-in-myanmars-northern-shan.html
38. ^ a b "မြန်မာစစ်တပ် ဘာကြောင့် အားနည်းသွားသလဲ" (in Burmese). BBC News မြန်မာ. 2 January 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
39. ^ မိုးဦး, ရောင်နီ (8 February 2024). "စကခ (၉) လက်အောက်ခံ ခြေမြန်တပ်ရင်း ၁၀ ရင်းလုံး AA သိမ်းယူ". Myanmar Now. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
40. ^ a b "ရက္ခိုင်တပ်တော်၏ ၃ လတာ တိုက်ပွဲအတွင်း တပ်မမှူးနှင့် ဗျူဟာမှူးအဆင့် ၂ ဦးအား အရှင်ဖမ်းမိပြီး ၂ ဦးအားအသေမိ". Narinjara News (in Burmese). Retrieved 7 April 2024.
41. ^ a b c "လောက်ကိုင်မှာ လက်နက်ချတဲ့ တပ်မှူးတွေ သေဒဏ်တကယ်ပေးခံရသလား" (in Burmese). BBC News မြန်မာ. 24 January 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
42. ^ ရှမ်းမြောက်မှာ လက်နက်ချ၊ ဖမ်းဆီးခံရတဲ့ ဗိုလ်မှူးချုပ်တွေနေရာကို လူစားထိုးခန့်. မြေလတ်အသံ (in Burmese). 19 January 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
43. ^ "Ethnic Resistance Group Claims Capture of Hundreds of Soldiers in Western Myanmar". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
44. ^ "Myanmar's Brotherhood Alliance Seizes Two More Towns in Shan State".
45. ^ "သိန္နီမြို့၌ သဘာဝဘေးအန္တရာယ်ကြိုတင်ကာကွယ်ရေး ပြင်ဆင်စုဖွဲ့ခြင်းလုပ်ငန်းဆောင်ရွက် | Information and Public Relations Department". moi.gov.mm. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
46. ^ a b "How Myanmar's shock troops led the assault that expelled the Rohingya". Reuters. 26 June 2018. Archived from the original on 17 July 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
47. ^ "Myanmar Infantry Division Surrenders in Laukkai, Shan State: Reports".
48. ^ "ငလျင်သင့်ကာလ အင်းတော်မြို့သိမ်းတိုက်ပွဲမှာ တပ်မ ၇၇ တပ်မမှူးအပါအဝင် တပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်တွေဖမ်းဆီးခံရ- ဧပြီ ၁၀ ရက်". BBC News မြန်မာ (in Burmese). 10 April 2025. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
49. ^ ကိုထက်မြတ်ပြောတဲ့ (၁၀၁) တပ်မမှူးမင်းမင်းထွန်းအကြောင်း. Archived from the original on 9 April 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024 - via YouTube.
50. ^ "အထိနာနေသော စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်-အပိုင်း ၁". "၂၀၂၄ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၇ ရက်နေ့ မြောက်ဦးတိုက်ပွဲတွင် တပ်မမှူး ဗိုလ်မှူးချုပ် မင်းမင်းထွန်း‌ သေဆုံးသည်။ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်၊ နိုဝင်ဘာလ ၁၃ ရက်မှ စတင်ခဲ့သော AA နှင့် တိုက်ပွဲများတွင် တပ်မမှူး၊ ဒုတပ်မမှူး၊ ဗျူဟာမှူးများနှင့် ရှေ့တန်းထွက်သော တပ်ရင်း ၁၀ ရင်းလုံး ထိခိုက်ပျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။ ၂၀၂၄ ခုနှစ်၊ မေလ ၁၁ ရက်အထိ တပ်မအား ပြန်လည်ဖွဲ့စည်းနိုင်ခြင်း မရှိသေးပါ။ လက်ရှိ တာဝန်ယူထားနိုင်သော သီးခြားစစ်ဆင်ရေးတာဝန် မရှိပါ။" [I translated it]
51. ^ "အထိနာနေသော စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်-အပိုင်း ၁". "၂၀၁၉၊ ၂၀၂၀ ပြည့်နှစ် AA နှင့် ဖြစ်ပွားသော စစ်ဆင်ရေးများတွင် ရခိုင်မြောက်ခြမ်း ဘူးသီးတောင်၊ မောင်တောဒေသ၌ တာဝန်ကျသည်။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်တွင် ရခိုင်မြောက်ခြမ်း၌ တပ်အချို့ထားခဲ့ပြီး ကျန်တပ်များ အားလုံး ကော့ကရိတ်၊ ကျုံဒိုးဒေသတွင် စစ်ဆင်ရေးဝင်သည်။ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံပျက်သွားသည်အထိ အထိနာသွားပြီး စစ်ဆင်ရေးများတွင် အဓိကနေရာမှ ဦးဆောင်နိုင်ခြင်း မရှိတော့ဘဲ အရန်အင်အားအနေဖြင့်သာ ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်တော့၏။ ယခု မြဝတီစစ်ဆင်ရေးတွင် တပ်မ ၅၅၊ ၄၄ တို့နှင့်အတူ ပါဝင်၏။" [(It's translated within the article directly in a brief form)]
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* Air Defense: Stealth Killer Missile Sales Soar
* Explore Our Collection of Study Guides – eNotes.com

## Further reading

[edit]

* Samuel Blythe, 'Army conditions leave Myanmar under strength,' Jane's Defence Weekly, Vol. 43, Issue 14, 5 April 2006, 12.
* Beech, Hannah (4 April 2021). "Inside Myanmar's Army: 'They See Protesters as Criminals'". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 April 2021.

## External links

[edit]

* Role of officers in Burmese Army (Part 1) Archived 25 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Bo Htet Min, Mizzima, 23 January 2010

* v
* t
* e

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