Myanmar Army
တပ်မတော် (ကြည်း) (Burmese) lit. 'Tatmadaw (Kyi)' 'Armed Forces (Army)'
Emblem of the Myanmar Army[a][1] Officers NCOs & ORs Cap badges
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	Tatmadaw (Kyi)
Mottos	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 GeneralMin Aung Hlaing
Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services andCommander-in-Chief (Army)	Vice-Senior GeneralSoe Win
Spokesperson of the Commander-in-Chief (Army)	Major General Zaw Min Tun
Notable commanders	Major GeneralAung San[7] GeneralNe Win[8] GeneralBo Let Ya[9] Lieutenant GeneralSmith Dun[10] GeneralKyaw Htin[11] GeneralSan Yu[12] GeneralThuraTin Oo[13][14] GeneralKhin Nyunt Vice-Senior GeneralMaung Aye[15] Vice-Senior GeneralSoe Win[16] Senior GeneralSaw Maung Senior GeneralThan Shwe Senior GeneralMin 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)

This article containsBurmese script. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofBurmese script.

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

The force is headed by theCommander-in-Chief of Myanmar Army, currentlyVice-Senior GeneralSoe Win, concurrentlyDeputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services, withSenior GeneralMin Aung Hlaing as theCommander-in-Chief of Defence Services. The highest rank in the Myanmar Army isSenior General, equivalent tofield marshal in Western armies and is currently held by Min Aung Hlaing after being promoted fromVice-Senior General. WithMajor GeneralZaw Min Tun serving as the officialspokesperson 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.

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

In the late 1930s, during the period ofBritish rule, a few Myanmar organizations or parties formed an alliance namedBurma's Htwet Yet (Liberation) Group, one of them beingDobama Asiayone. Since most of the members were Communist, they wanted help from Chinese Communists; but when ThakhinAung 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 theJapanese invasion of Burma was ready, the 30 Soldiers recruited Myanmar people in Thailand and foundedBurmese 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 possessde 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.

At the time of Myanmar's independence in 1948, theTatmadaw 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 theBritish 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.

The army has always been by far the largest service inMyanmar and has always received thelion'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 theThai people, not known to praise the Burmese lightly, have described the Myanmar Army as "skilled in the art ofjungle warfare".^[25]

The Myanmar Army had reached some 370,000 active troops of all ranks in 2000. There were 337infantry battalions, including 266light infantry battalions as of 2000. Although the Myanmar Army's organisational structure was based upon theregimental system, the basic manoeuvre and fighting unit is thebattalion, known asTat Yinn (တပ်ရင်း) in Burmese. This is composed of a headquarters company and four rifle companiesTat Khwe (တပ်ခွဲ) with three rifle platoonsTat Su (တပ်စု) each; headquarters company has medical, transport, logistics, and signals units; a heavy weapons company includingmortar,machine gun, andrecoilless gun platoons. Each battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonelDu Ti Ya Bo Hmu Gyi or Du Bo Hmu Gyi with amajor (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 ofကဖ/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'sTatmadaw 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 andartillery fire support have been greatly increased. Its newly acquired military might was apparent in the Tatmadaw's dry season operations againstKaren National Union (KNU) strongholds inManerplaw andKawmoora. 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, althoughchild soldiers may not perform very well in combating with enemies.^[29]

The first armydivision to be formed after the 1988 militarycoup was the No. (11) Light Infantry Division (LID) in December 1988 withColonel Win Myint as commander. In March 1990, a new regional military command was created inMonywa withBrigadier Kyaw Min as commander and named theNorth-Western Regional Military Command. A year later, 101st LID was formed inPakokku with Colonel Saw Tun as commander. Two Regional Operations Commands (ROC) were formed inMyeik andLoikaw 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 tomechanised infantry divisions in Western armies, each with 10 regular infantry battalions (Chay Hlyin Tatyin), a headquarters, and organic support units includingfield artillery. In 1996, two new RMC were opened, Coastal Region RMC was opened inMyeik with Brigadier Sit Maung as commander and Triangle Region RMC inKengtung with BrigadierThein Sein as commander. Three new ROCs were created inKalay,Bhamo andMongsat. In late 1998, two new MOCs were created inBokepyin and Mongsat.^[30]

The most significant expansion after the infantry in the army was in armour and artillery. Beginning in 1990, the Tatmadaw procured 18T-69IImain battle tanks and 48T-63 amphibiouslight tanks from China. Further procurements were made, including several hundredType 85 andType 92armoured 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 inPyawbwe.

The Bureau of Special Operations (ကာကွယ်ရေးဌာန စစ်ဆင်ရေး အထူးအဖွဲ့) in the Myanmar Army are high-level field units equivalent tofield 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 theGeneral Staff Office on 28 April 1978 and 1 June 1979. In early 1978, the Chairman ofBSPP, GeneralNe Win, visited the Northeastern Command Headquarters inLashio to receive a briefing aboutBurmese Communist Party (BCP)insurgents and theirmilitary 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 inNortheastern 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, andNortheastern), 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 theNorthwestern 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 Myanmarorder of battle.^[31]

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 100Artillery Battalions, 24 Armoured/tank Battalions and 9 Missile Battalions.^[32]

RMCs are similar tocorps 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 asBorder Guard Force units
Northeastern Command (အရှေ့မြောက်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)		NorthernShan State	Lashio	45 Infantry Battalions	Captured by theMyanmar 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)		SouthernShan State andKayah State	Taunggyi	35 Infantry Battalions plus an additional 2 Battalions asBorder Guard Force units
Southeastern Command (အရှေ့တောင်တိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)		Mon State andKayin State	Mawlamyine	56 Infantry Battalions plus an additional 13 Battalions asBorder Guard Force units
Southern Command (တောင်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)		Bago andMagwe Regions	Toungoo	32 Infantry Battalions
Western Command (အနောက်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်)		Rakhine State andChin State	Ann	43 Infantry Battalions	Captured by theArakan Army on 20 December 2024. 33 Battalions have been captured by theNational 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)		EasternShan State	Kyaingtong (Kengtung)	40 Infantry Battalions plus an additional 4 Battalions asBorder 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)		MiddleShan State	Kholam[34]	Formed in 2011 – 31 Infantry Battalions

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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.

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 withBTR-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 withEQ-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 inKawthaung 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.

Light Infantry Division (ခြေမြန်တပ်မ orတမခ), 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 centralBago 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 atPyay,Aungban andThaton. They were followed by another two LIDs in the period prior to the 1988 military coup (the No. (33) LID with headquarters atSagaing and the No. (22) LID with headquarters atHpa-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 atPakokku.^[20][35]

Each LID, commanded by Brigadier General (Bo hmu gyoke) level officers, consists of 10 light infantry battalions specially trained incounter-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		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		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		1984	Mandalay/later Sagaing	Col. Kyaw Ba	Colonel Kyaw Set Myint	Involved in crackdown against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state[46] Involved in theKachin conflict
No. (44) 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		1980	Sagaing/later Kalaw	Col. Phone Myint	Colonel Aung Soe Min	Surrendered to theMyanmar 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		1976	Innma	Col. Taung Zar Khaing	Colonel Kyaw Soe Lin
No. (77) Light Infantry Division		1966	Hmawbi/later Bago	Col. Tint Swe	Brigadier General Kyaw Kyaw Han	Surrendered to thePDF 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		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		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		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]

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:

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 andIndia.^[20][35]

• HQ battalion
• 10MissileBattalions

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 inKyaukpadaung and No. (808) Artillery Operation Command (AOC) headquarters in Oaktwin, nearTaungoo. The remaining 30 battalions, including 7 Anti-Aircraft artillery battalions are under the Directorate of Artillery Corps.^[20][35]

• HQ battalion
• 12 Artillery battalions:
  • 6 Light Field artillery battalion equipped with105 mm, 76 mm, 75 mmhowitzers,field guns andmountain guns,
  • 3 Medium Field Artillery battalion equipped with 155 mm, 130 mm, 122 mm howitzers and field guns,
  • 1Multiple Rocket Launcher battalion equipped with 122 mm and 240 mmMLRS,self-propelled and towed launchers,
  • 1 Air Defence Artillery battalion with 37 mm, 57 mmAnti-Aircraft guns orSA 18 IGLAs) man portablesurface-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.

No. 1 Armour Company and No. 2 Armour Company were formed in July 1950 under the Directorate of Armour and Artillery Corps withSherman tanks,Stuart light tanks,Humber scout cars,Ferret armoured cars andUniversal 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 25Comet 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 withInfantry 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-72main battle tanks from Ukraine and signed a contract to build and equip a factory in Myanmar to produce and assemble 1,000BTR armoured personnel carriers in 2004.^[53] In 2006, theGovernment of India transferred an unspecified number ofT-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 indigenousHAL 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 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 44BMP-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 anengineersquadron, two logistic squadrons, and a signal company.^{[citation needed]}

The Myanmar Army acquired about 150 refurbishedEE-9 Cascavelarmoured 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.

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 fromRussia andChina. 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]

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 militaryfibre 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]

At the time of independence in 1948, the medical corps has two Base Military Hospitals, each with 300 beds, inMingalardon andPyin Oo Lwin, a Medical Store Depot inYangon, a Dental Unit and six Camp Reception Stations located inMyitkyina,Sittwe,Taungoo,Pyinmana,Bago andMeikhtila. 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 andNaypyidaw), two 700-bed hospitals inPyin Oo Lwin andAung Ban, two 500-bed military hospitals inMeikhtila andYangon, one 500-bed Defence Services Orthopedic Hospital in Mingalardon, two 300-bed Defence Services Obstetric, Gynecological and Children hospitals (Mingalardon andNaypyidaw), 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, andHomalin), 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.

The rank insignia ofcommissioned 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

The rank insignia ofnon-commissioned officers andenlisted 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

• 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 6Tank 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]

• 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

• Air Defense: Stealth Killer Missile Sales Soar
• Explore Our Collection of Study Guides – eNotes.com

• 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. Retrieved11 April 2021.

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

• Military of Myanmar
• Armies by country
• 1945 establishments in Burma
• Military units and formations established in 1945

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