Burmese monarchy The
Royal Armed Forces was the
armed forces of the
Burmese monarchy from the 9th to 19th centuries. It refers to the military forces of the
Pagan dynasty, the
Ava Kingdom, the
Toungoo dynasty and the
Konbaung dynasty in chronological order. The army was one of the major armed forces of
Southeast Asia until it was defeated by the
British over a six-decade span in the 19th century. The army was organised into a small standing army of a few thousand, which defended the capital and the palace, and a much larger
conscription-based wartime army. Conscription was based on the ahmudan system, which required local chiefs to supply their predetermined quota of men from their jurisdiction on the basis of population in times of war. The wartime army also consisted of
elephantry,
cavalry,
artillery and
naval units.
Firearms, first introduced from
China in the late 14th century, became integrated into strategy only gradually over many centuries. The first special musket and artillery units, equipped with Portuguese
matchlocks and
cannon, were formed in the 16th century. Outside the special firearm units, there was no formal training program for the regular conscripts, who were expected to have a basic knowledge of self-defence, and how to operate the musket on their own. As the technological gap between Asia and European powers widened in the 18th century, the army was dependent on Europeans' willingness to sell more sophisticated weaponry. While the army had held its own against the armies of the kingdom's neighbours, its performance against more technologically advanced European armies deteriorated over time. While it defeated the
Portuguese and French intrusions in the 17th and 18th centuries respectively, the army proved unable to match the military strength of the
British Empire in the 19th century, losing the
First,
Second and
Third Anglo-Burmese Wars. On 1 January 1886, the
Royal Burmese Army was formally disbanded by the
British government.
British Burma (1885–1948) Under
British rule, the colonial government in
Burma abstained from recruiting Burmese soldiers into the
East India Company forces (and later the
British Indian Army), instead relying on pre-existing Indian
sepoys and
Nepalese Gurkhas to garrison the nascent colony. Due to mistrust of the Burmese population, the colonial government maintained this ban for decades, instead looking to the indigenous
Karens,
Kachins and
Chins to form new military units in the colony. In 1937, the colonial government overturned the ban, and Burmese troops started to enlist in small numbers in the
British Indian Army. At the beginning of
World War I, the only Burmese military regiment in the
British Indian Army, the 70th
Burma Rifles, consisted of three
battalions, made up of
Karens,
Kachins and
Chins. During the conflict, the demands of war led to the colonial government relaxing the ban, raising a Burmese battalion in the 70th Burma Rifles, a Burmese
company in the
85th Burma Rifles, and seven Burmese Mechanical Transport companies. In addition, three companies (
combat units) of
Burma Sappers and Miners, made up of mostly Burmese, and a company of
Labour Corps, made up of Chins and Burmese, were also raised. All these units began their overseas assignment in 1917. The 70th Burma Rifles served in Egypt for garrison duties while the Burmese Labour Corps served in France. One company of Burma Sappers and Miners distinguished themselves in
Mesopotamia at the crossing the
Tigris. After
World War I, the colonial government stopped recruiting Burmese soldiers, and discharged all but one Burmese companies, which had been abolished by 1925. The last Burmese company of Burma Sappers and Miners too was disbanded in 1929.
Compton Mackenzie wrote in
Eastern Epic that after the separation of India and Burma: • "The Army in Burma commanded by a general officer under the Governor comprised; • 1 Headquarters Army in Burma, which was about the same size as the former Headquarters Burma District. • 2 Headquarters Rangoon Brigade Area. • 3 Two British infantry battalions. Four Burma Rifles battalions, each with its own training company for recruits. • 4 One Indian mountain battery and one field company Indian Sappers and Miners. Both.. were on loan from India and the latter was to be replaced by a company of Burma Sappers and Miners in 1940. • 5 A minimum of ancillary units and services without provision for second line transport. • 6 One battalion of the Burma Territorial Force. These military forces were expanded between 1939 and the end of 1941, but the additional strength was impaired by defects inherent in the organisation as it stood before separation. The small and independent military command now set up had been carved out of the experienced Indian organisation with its comparatively large resources; adequate though this may have been for peacetime conditions it was quite inadequate to deal with the expansion im- posed by a great war. The officers were drawn from the British service and the Indian Army with little hope of reinforcement in time of war except for the untrained resources of Burma. Before the outbreak of war with Japan and for some time afterwards Burma Army Headquarters was simultaneously a War Office, a G.H.Q,., a Corps H.Q. and an [Lines of Communication] Area H.Q. Matters of detail could have been worked out more quickly and efficiently by G.H.Q,. in India if the Army in Burma had been placed for command and general administration under [it]. As it was, up to November 1940 Burma was directly under the War Office at home; it was then placed under Far Eastern Command at Singapore. Neither arrangement even bordered upon common sense, but although three times in 1940 and 1941 successive commanders-in-chief urged the authorities in the United Kingdom to place Burma [under India], it was not done until December 15th by which time it was too late." In December 1941, a
group of Burmese independence activists founded the
Burma Independence Army (BIA) with
Japanese help. The Burma Independence Army led by
Aung San (the father of
Aung San Suu Kyi) fought in the
Burma Campaign on the side of the
Imperial Japanese Army. Thousands of young men joined its ranks—reliable estimates range from 15,000 to 23,000. The great majority of the recruits were
Burmese, with little ethnic minority representation. Many of the fresh recruits lacked discipline. At
Myaungmya in the
Irrawaddy Delta, an
ethnic war broke out between Burmese
BIA men and
Karens, with both sides responsible for massacres. The
Burma Independence Army was soon replaced with the
Burma Defence Army, founded on 26 August 1942 with three thousand BIA veterans. The army became the Burma National Army with General
Ne Win as its commander on 1 August 1943 when Burma achieved nominal independence. In late 1944, it had a strength of approximately 15,000. Disillusioned by the
Japanese occupation, the Burma National Army switched sides and joined the allied forces on 27 March 1945.
Post-independence 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. The most serious problem was the tension between Karen Officers, coming from the
British Burma Army and Burmese officers, coming from the
Patriotic Burmese Force (
PBF). In accordance with the agreement reached at the
Kandy Conference in September 1945, the
Tatmadaw was reorganised by incorporating the British Burma Army and the Patriotic Burmese Force. The officer corps shared by ex-PBF officers and officers from the British Burma Army and Army of Burma Reserve Organisation (ABRO). 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. None of the influential positions within the War Office and commands were manned with former PBF Officers. All services including
military engineers, supply and transport, ordnance and medical services, Navy and Air Force were commanded by former Officers from ABRO. , circa April 1954, on the lookout for
Chinese Nationalist troops who fled to Burma following their defeat in the
Chinese Civil War The War Office was officially opened on 8 May 1948 under the
Ministry of Defence and managed by a War Office Council chaired by the Minister of Defence. At the head of War Office was Chief of Staff, Vice Chief of Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff,
Adjutant General and Quartermaster General. Vice Chief of Staff, who was also Chief of Army Staff and the head of General Staff Office. VCS oversee General Staff matters and there were three branch offices: GS-1 Operation and Training, GS-2 Staff Duty and Planning; GS-3 Intelligence. Signal Corps and Field Engineering Corps are also under the command of General Staff Office. According to the war establishment adopted on 14 April 1948, Chief of Staff was under the War Office with the rank of
major general. It was subsequently upgraded to a
lieutenant general. Vice Chief of Staff was a
brigadier general. The Chief of Staff was staffed with GSO-I with the rank of
lieutenant colonel, three GSO-II with the rank of major, four GSO-III with the rank of captain for operation, training, planning and intelligence, and one Intelligence Officer (IO). The Chief of Staff office also had one GSO-II and one GSO-III for field engineering, and the Chief Signal Officer and a GSO-II for signal. Directorate of Signal and Directorate Field Engineering are also under General Staff Office. On 1 January 1956, the War Office was officially renamed as the
Ministry of Defence.
General Ne Win became the first
Chief of Staff of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) to command all three services – Army, Navy and Air Force – under a single unified command for the first time.
1962 coup d'état The elections of 1960 had put
U Nu back as the Prime Minister and Pyidaungsu Party (
Union Party) led civilian government resume control of the country. On 2 March 1962, the then Chief of Staff of Armed Forces, General
Ne Win staged a coup d'état and formed the "
Union Revolutionary Council". Around midnight the troops began to move into Yangon to take up strategic position. Prime Minister
U Nu and his cabinet ministers were taken into protective custody. At 8:50 am, General
Ne Win announced the coup over the radio. He said "''I have to inform you, citizens of the Union that Armed Forces have taken over the responsibility and the task of keeping the country's safety, owing to the greatly deteriorating conditions of the Union.''" The country would be ruled by the military for the next 12 years. The
Burma Socialist Programme Party became the sole political party and the majority of its full members were military. Government servants underwent military training and the Military Intelligence Service functioned as the secret police of the state.
1988 coup d'état At the height of the
Four Eights Uprising against the socialist government, Former General
Ne Win, who at the time was chairman of the ruling
Burma Socialist Programme Party (
BSPP), issued a warning against potential protestors during a televised speech. He stated that if the "disturbances" continued the "Army would have to be called and I would like to make it clear that if the Army shoots, it has no tradition of shooting into the Air, it would shoot straight to hit". Subsequently, the 22 Light Infantry Division, 33 Light Infantry Division and the 44 Light Infantry Division were redeployed to
Yangon from front line fighting against ethnic insurgents in the Karen states. Battalions from three Light Infantry Divisions, augmented by infantry battalions under Yangon Regional Military Command and supporting units from Directorate of Artillery and Armour Corps were deployed during the suppression of protests in and around the then capital city of Yangon. Initially, these troops were deployed in support of the then
People's Police Force (now known as
Myanmar Police Force) security battalions and to patrol the streets of the capital and to guard government offices and building. However, at midnight of 8 August 1988 troops from 22 Light Infantry Division guarding Yangon City Hall opened fire on unarmed protesters as the crackdown against the protests began. The armed forces under General Saw Maung formed a
State Law and Order Restoration Council, repealed the constitution and declared
martial law on 18 September 1988. By late September the military had complete control of the country.
Political reforms (2008–2020) In 2008, the current
constitution was released by the military government for a public referendum. The
SPDC claimed that the referendum was a success, with an approval rate of 93.82%; however, there has been widespread criticism of the veracity of these claims, partially because
Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar a few days before the referendum, and the government did not allow postponement of the referendum. Under the 2008 Constitution, the Tatmadaw is guaranteed 25% of the seats in the parliament, making it difficult to pass meaningful reforms that the Tatmadaw does not approve of. In 2010, conscription legislation was passed that compelled able-bodied men and women between 18–45 and 18–35 respectively to serve up to three years in the military, or face significant jail sentences. Following Myanmar's political reforms, Myanmar has made substantial shifts in its relations with major powers
China,
Russia and the
United States. In 2014, Lieutenant-General
Anthony Crutchfield, the deputy commander of the
United States Pacific Command (USPACOM), was invited to address his counterparts at the Myanmar National Defence College in
Naypyidaw, which trains colonels and other high-ranking military officers. In May 2016, Myanmar's
Union Parliament approved a military cooperation agreement with
Russia following a proposal by Deputy Minister of Defence. In June 2016, Myanmar and Russia signed a defence cooperation agreement. The agreement will envisage exchanging information on international security issues, including the fight against terrorism, cooperation in the cultural sphere and leisure of servicemen and their families, along with exchanging experience in peacekeeping activities. Moreover, in response to Naypyidaw's post-2011 political and economic reforms,
Australia re-established a ‘normal’ bilateral relationship with Myanmar to support democratisation and reform. In June 2016, the
Australian Federal Police signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with its Myanmar counterparts aimed at enhancing
transnational crime cooperation and intelligence sharing. In December 2017, the US imposed sanctions on General
Maung Maung Soe, a general of Western Myanmar Command who oversaw the
military's crackdown in Rakhine State. The Tatmadaw had sentenced seven soldiers to 10-year prison terms for killing 10 Rohingya men in Rakhine in September 2017. A 2019 UN report revealed the degree to which the country's military uses its own businesses, foreign companies and arms deals to support, away from the public eye, a “brutal operations” against ethnic groups that constitute “serious crimes under international law”, bypassing civilian oversight and evading accountability. In June 2020, the Tatmadaw accused
China for arming rebel groups in the country's frontier areas.
2021 coup d'état and aftermath In February 2021, the Tatmadaw detained
Aung San Suu Kyi and other high-ranking politicians after a contested election with disputed results. A
state of emergency had been declared for one year. The
State Administration Council was established by
Min Aung Hlaing on 2 February 2021 as the current government in power. On 1 August 2021, the State Administration Council was re-formed as a
caretaker government, which appointed Min Aung Hlaing as
Prime Minister. The same day, Min Aung Hlaing announced that the country's state of emergency had been extended by an additional two years. As the
Myanmar Civil War has progressed, the Tatmadaw has become more reliant on
military aid from
Russia and
China. As of 2023, analysts suggested that the Tatmadaw has sustained significant losses due to both combat against the pro-democracy insurgents as well as desertions within the rank and file soldiers. The
United States Institute for Peace estimates that the Tatamadaw has sustained at least 13,000 combat losses and 8,000 losses due to
desertion. The Tatmadaw itself has acknowledged that it does not have control over 132 of Myanmar's 330 townships, or 42 percent of the country's towns. On 10 February 2024, the
State Administration Council activated conscription under the 2010
SPDC ''
People's Military Service Law'' in response to anti-junta ethnic militias and pro-democracy rebels capturing massive swathes of territory.
Min Aung Hlaing stated to officials and cadets in
Pyin Oo Lwin that, "[The Tatmadaw will] continue to play a leading role in politics until
ethnic armed groups no longer exist." == Budget ==