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| Myanmar Navy | |
|---|---|
| တပ်မတော် (ရေ) (Burmese) lit. 'Tatmadaw (Yay)' 'Armed Forces (Navy)' | |
.svg){kind=icon} .svg){kind=icon} Cap badges | |
| Founded | 24 December 1947; 77 years ago (1947-12-24) |
| Country |  Myanmar (formerlyBurma) |
| Type | Navy |
| Size | 30,000 active personnel(as of 2022) |
| Part of |  Myanmar Armed Forces |
| Headquarters | Naypyidaw |
| Nickname | Tatmadaw (Yay) |
| Mottos |
|
| Colours | Navy blue,White,Black (for Myanmar Navy Seals) |
| Anniversaries | 24 December 1948 |
| Equipment | List of equipment in the Myanmar Navy |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar Armed Forces |  Senior GeneralMin Aung Hlaing |
| Minister of Defence |  AdmiralTin Aung San |
| Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Navy |  AdmiralHtein Win[1] |
| Chief of Naval Staff |  Major GeneralHtein Win[2] |
| Commander of the Engineering Section |  Commodore Aung Thu Soe |
| Insignia | |
| Ensign | |
| Pennant |  |
| former Ensign (1948 - 1974) | .svg) |
| former Ensign (1974 - 1994) | .svg) |
TheMyanmar Navy (Burmese:တပ်မတော် (ရေ);[taʔmədɔ̀jè]) is the naval warfare branch of theTatmadaw, the armed forces ofMyanmar. With 19,000 active personnel, the navy operates more than 227 vessels.[3] Prior to 1988, the navy was small, and its role incounter-insurgency operations was smaller than those of thearmy and theair force. The navy has since been expanded to take on a more active role in defense of Myanmar's territorial waters.
The naval arm of theRoyal Armed Forces consisted mainly of shallow draft river boats. Its primary missions were to control theIrrawaddy River, and to protect the ships carrying the army to the front. The major war boats carried up to 30 musketeers and were armed with 6- or 12-pounder cannon.[4] By the mid-18th century, the navy had acquired a few seafaring ships, crewed by European and foreign sailors, that were used to transport the troops in Siamese and Arakanese campaigns.
TheArakanese and the Mon, from maritime regions, maintained more seaworthy flotillas than the inland riverborne "navy" of the Royal Burmese Army.
On 1 April 1937, Burma became a separately administered colony of Britain, and thereafter became responsible for her own local naval defence. It was decided that a naval volunteer reserve force should be formed to implement this responsibility and so provide a local force for the naval administration and defence of the ports and coast of Burma in time of war.
On the recommendation of Vice Admiral SirJames Fownes Somerville, thenCommander-in-Chief, East Indies, Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Sidebottom Lyle fromRoyal Navy was sent to Burma and arrived in Rangoon in June 1939, commissioned to form the volunteer reserve force and to be appointed Naval Office-in-Charge, Rangoon, on the outbreak of war.
On 6 September 1940,Burma Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve was officially formed under the Burma Act XV, 1940.[5] The Burma R.N.V.R was placed under the operational orders of Vice Admiral SirHerbert Fitzherbert, commanding theRoyal Indian Navy, but retains its own identity and its own administration under the Government of Burma.
Burma R.N.V.R, although very small, played an active part inAllied operations against theJapanese during theSecond World War. By 1 December 1945, theRoyal Navy has been withdrawn and the Burma R.N.V.R assumed all naval responsibilities on the coast and waters of Burma.[6]
In December 1947, the Union of Burma Navy was formed with 700 men mostly from Burma R.N.V.R. The fleet initially consisted of a small but diverse collection of ships transferred from theRoyal Navy under the arrangements made for Burma's independence in January 1948. It included theUBS Mayu, an ex-Royal NavyRiver-classfrigate, and fourLanding Craft Gun (Medium).[7] British Defense Ministry sold with the original 25-pounder guns on naval mountings and Oerlikon 20mm cannons which were reinstalled later.
In 1950 and 1951, theUnited States provided 10 coast guard cutters (CGC) under theMutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP). The Myanmar Navy played an important part in the government's fight against the ethnic and ideological insurgent groups which threatened the Union Government in its early days. The Myanmar Navy performed both defensive and offensive roles, protecting convoys, carrying supplies, ferrying troops and giving much-needed fire support. It was instrumental in relieving the port city ofMoulmein, which was captured by Karen insurgents in 1948, and theIrrawaddy Delta town ofBassein. Although one armed patrol boat defected to the Karen insurgents, throughout the turbulent years of post independence in Myanmar, the navy was largely unopposed and maintained control over Myanmar's crucial inland waterways.[8]
In 1956 and 1957, the Burmese government acquired five 50-long-ton (51 t) Saunders-RoeDark-class convertible motor torpedo/motor gunboats,[9] followed by an 1,040-long-ton (1,060 t)Algerine-classminesweeper in 1958 from the United Kingdom.[10] In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States sold the Burmese Navy six PGM type coastal patrol craft and seven CGC-type patrol boats.[11] In 1958, Myanmar's Navy took delivery of 10Y-301-class river gunboats fromYugoslavia, followed by 25 smallerMichao-class patrol craft.
Efforts were made to produce locally madenaval vessels with assistance from Yugoslavia. In 1960, the Myanmar Navy commissioned two 400-long-ton (410 t)Nawarat-class corvettes. Their armaments include25-pounder field gun and40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun.[12] Myanmar shipyards also built a number of smaller patrol craft and a number of landing craft. Landing craft and auxiliary ships are usually armed withOerlikon 20 mm cannons,40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns andheavy machine guns.[13] In the mid-1960s, the Myanmar Navy took delivery of ex-US Navy 640-long-ton (650 t) PCE-827 class[14][failed verification]corvette and a 650-long-ton (660 t)Admirable-class minesweeper, both of which were commissioned in the mid-1940s.
Although it expanded rapidly during the 1950s and 1960s, the navy was unable to keep pace with loss or deterioration of older vessels in the 1970s. In 1978, the United States provided the Myanmar Navy with six small river patrol craft.[15] A naval replacement program was initiated by BSPP Government in 1979.
In 1980, the navy acquired sixCarpentaria-class inshore patrol boats from Australia followed by three 128-tonSwift-type coastal patrol boats from Singapore and three 385-tonOsprey-class offshore patrol vessels built in Denmark. TheOsprey- andSwift-class boats have a range of 4,500 and 1,800 miles (7,200 and 2,900 km), respectively, and were armed withOerlikon 20 mm cannons and40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns. In the early 1980s, Burmese naval shipyards built three 128-ton PGM type patrol boats based upon USPGM-class patrol boats. Each boat was armed with two 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns and two 12.7 mm heavy machine guns.
The Myanmar Navy purchased six missile escort boats and ten submarine chasers from China. Since 1998, the navy has built two 77 m (252 ft 7 in)Anawrahta-class corvettes (771 and 772) and fourfast attack craft (551-554).
In 2008 a naval encounter took place between theBangladesh Navy and the Myanmar Navy. The confrontation was a direct result of the Myanmar Navy allowing companies to drill for natural gas and oil in a disputed area of theBay of Bengal.[citation needed]
As many as 25 Burmese naval ships may have been sunk in the storm caused byCyclone Nargis in May 2008, while an unknown number of naval personnel and their family members were killed or are listed as missing.[16] The Network for Democracy and Development in Thailand reported that 30 officers and 250 Burmese naval personnel were declared missing, while 25 vessels were destroyed by the cyclone in three naval regional command centres: Panmawaddy Regional Command on Hainggyi Island; Irrawaddy Regional Command; and Danyawaddy Regional Command in Sittwe in Arakan State.
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As part of international engagement of the US with the Myanmar's armed forces, theUSS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) visited Myanmar in early 2013.[17]
In 2014, the Myanmar Navy began its annual 'Sea Shield' combined fleet exercise in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The annual manoeuvres usually involved live-fire exercises by several of the Myanmar Navy's strategic vessels.[18]
The navy participated in the Indian and Myanmar Navy Exercise 2018, held in the Bay of Bengal. On the Burmese side, vessels included theKyan Sittha-class frigate UMSSin Phyu Shin (F-14) and offshore patrol vessel UMSInle and on the Indian side, vessels included anti-submarine warfare corvetteINSKamorta, Shivalik (Project 17)-class frigateINSSahyadri, and a Type 877EKMKilo-class submarine, along with one helicopter and two advanced aircraft.[19] In September 2019, Myanmar Navy'sUMS Kyan Sittha participated in the first US-Asean Maritime Exercise (AUMX) to improvedisaster management and maritime cooperation in the region.[20]
The navy has maintained relationships with regional navies. It has hosted navies from the region such as theRoyal Australian Navy, thePLA Navy and theIndian Navy.[21][22][23] Likewise, the navy's ships have visited countries in the region includingVietnam,Thailand andSingapore.[24][25]
The Myanmar Navy formed anaval infantry battalion of 800 men in 1964, and a second battalion in 1967.[citation needed] They battalions traditionally are deployed mainly in the Arakan, Tenasserim, and Irrawaddy delta coastal regions primarily to assist in the army's counter-insurgency operations (COIN).[citation needed]
TheMyanmar Navy Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Myanmar Navy SEALs (တပ်မတော် (ရေ) အထူးစစ်ဆင်ရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့) were probably formed in the early 2010s. The Myanmar Navy SEALs are particularly trained for special operation missions such asHostage rescue,Counter-terrorism andCounter narcotic operations. The selection process and training curriculum is claimed to be similar toUnited States Navy SEAL selection and training.[26][27][28]
Previously, Myanmar Naval air defence forces used Bofors 40mm & ZPU-2 AAA for naval bases.
The rank insignia ofcommissioned officers.
| Rank group | General / flag officers | Senior officers | Junior officers | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Myanmar Navy |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ||||||||||||
| ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီး bogyok hmūgyī | ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီး dụtịyạ bogyok hmūgyī | ဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး bogyok kyī | ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး dụtịyạ bogyok kyī | ဗိုလ်ချုပ် bogyok | ဗိုလ်မှူးချုပ် bohmūgyok | ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီး bohmūgyī | ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီး dụtịyạ bohmūgyī | ဗိုလ်မှူး bohmū | ဗိုလ်ကြီး bogyī | ဗိုလ် bo | ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ် dụtịyạ bo | |||||||||||||
The rank insignia ofnon-commissioned officers andenlisted personnel.
| Rank group | Senior NCOs | Junior NCOs | Enlisted | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Myanmar Navy |  |  |  |  |  |  | No insignia | No insignia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| အရာခံဗိုလ် ’araākhaṃ bauilaʻ | ဒုတိယအရာခံဗိုလ် dautaiya ’araākhaṃ bauilaʻ | အုပ်ခွဲတပ်ကြပ်ကြီး aupaʻ khavai tapaʻ karpaʻ karīʺ | တပ်ကြပ်ကြီး tapaʻ karpaʻ karīʺ | တပ်ကြပ် tapaʻ karpaʻ | ဒုတိယတပ်ကြပ် dautaiya tapaʻ karpaʻ | တပ်သား tapaʻ saāʺ | တပ်သားသစ် tapaʻ saāʺ sacaʻ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Myanmar Navy has undertaken a modernisation program since the early 2000s. It has added larger and more advanced ships, mostly by constructing them locally with foreign supplied equipment.[29]
The Myanmar Navy started its modernization program in 2001 in an attempt to replace older ships and equipment. In 2012, the navy took delivery of twoType 053H1-class frigates fromChina. These two ships were upgraded extensively. Upgrades included the replacing ofHY 2 anti-ship missiles byC-802 missiles and installing new sensors. The first indigenous frigate, theAung Zeya entered service in 2011 and took part in a joint exercise withIndian Navy ships offVisakhapatnam in early 2013. A second ship,Kyan Sittha entered service in 2012 and is the navy's firststealth frigate. The navy plans to build six indigenous frigates; combiningRussian,Indian, Chinese, and Western weapons systems. These ships are equipped withKh-35Eanti-ship missiles,OTO Melara 76 mm Super Rapid Cannons,AK-630 6-barrel 30mmclose-in weapon system (CIWS) and ChineseASW rockets andtorpedoes.Radars and electronic systems are mainly fromBharat Electronics of India. Myanmar acquiredsurface-to-air missiles andanti-ship missiles from China for its newly built frigates andOPVs. Myanmar Navy Shipyard built with Chinese assistance in the late 1990s is one of the most modern shipyards in the region. Many Burmese naval engineers underwent shipbuilding training in China and Russia.
In 2020, the navy acquired its first submarine, a Soviet eraSindhughosh/Kilo-class submarine, from India. The former INSSindhuvir (S58) was refitted byHindustan Shipyard Limited before the handover. Now renamedUMSMinye Theinkhathu, the submarine is to be used for training.[30][31] It was first seen publicly on 15 October 2020 as part of a naval fleet exercise ('Bandoola 2020').[32] The Indian Navy is going to assist in training Myanmar to operate the submarine effectively.[33]
On 24 December 2021, Myanmar Navy has commissioned its second submarine theUMS Minye Kyaw Htin, atype 35B Ming-class submarine from China.[34]
Between 2015 and 2017, the Myanmar Navy procured twoSuper Dvora Mk III patrol boats fromIsrael.[35] Next, under a US$37.9 million deal signed in March 2017, the Myanmar Navy received the advancedanti-submarine torpedoShyena units from India.[36] Moreover, the Myanmar Navy acquired a newlanding platform dock (LPD) fromSouth Korea in 2019.[37]
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Myanmar's regime appointed Major General Htein Win as its navy commander-in-chief following the alleged interrogation of his predecessor, according to a Naypyitaw source.
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