Myanmar’s military has been ramping up its use of drones, deploying a combination of retrofitted commercial drones and customized military munitions to carry out a torrent of deadly strikes against rebel forces and civilians, according to visual evidence of recent attacks and interviews with people inside the country.

This is a new tactic for the military, which has struggled to consolidate control over Myanmar since seizing power from a democratically elected government in 2021, and has faced a series of setbacks since last October.

After being hammered by a major rebel offensive, the military has clawed back some territory in the south but lost more ground in the northwest and east of Myanmar. As rebels capture towns closer to the capital Naypyidaw, surveillance and attack drones have filled critical gaps in the military’s defense, including providing support for its overstretched air force and helping to compensate for a lack of manpower, said Morgan Michaels, a Singapore-based security analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The Washington Post collated more than 30 videos and photos of military drone operations from noncombatant aid groups, watchdog groups and pro-military channels. Investigators at Conflict Armament Research (CAR), an independent group based in Britain that tracks weapons usage, analyzed the material and said the military has been using tactics that rebel groups had been employing but at a larger scale and with greater firepower.

Many of the attack drones used by the military are commercial equipment manufactured by various foreign companies, say weapons experts. But the junta has also sought out specialized surveillance drones, in particular from Russia, according to supply chain analysts.

While the United States and European Union have embargoes on the sale of weapons to the Myanmar military, these have failed to stem the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars worth in arms from Russia and China as well as equipment categorized as “dual-use,” such as drones and drone parts, said Tom Andrews, a United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar.

As part of its expanding drone program, the military has been deploying customized bombs for drones, said analysts. These munitions are cylindrical with stabilizing fins to help direct them, noted CAR investigators. The bombs also have army green paint and yellow stenciled lettering, which are trademarks of Burmese weaponry, suggesting they were manufactured by the military, said CAR.

These drone munitions are “very high quality,” said Khu Reedu, adjutant general for the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF), a rebel group fighting in the south. The ordnance used by rebels — much of it homemade or bought on the black market — cannot compare in terms of size and explosiveness, said Khu Reedu.

The military has also been deploying munitions with greater accuracy, which rebel groups and aid groups operating in rebel-controlled areas attribute to the military’s growing fleet of Russian surveillance drones.

On July 10, the military carried out a drone strike on a medical clinic in Budalin township in the contested region of Sagaing where rebel soldiers were being treated. The attack, captured on videos spread on pro-military social media channels, killed six people, including a local civilian midwife, Aye Aye Thin, 39, survivors said in interviews.

“We’d never experienced anything like this. The explosion was too powerful,” said Aye’s husband Tun, 46, who was with her. The blast left lacerations across his wife’s face and body, photos show. She died in Tun’s arms as he tried to carry her to another clinic, he said.

A spokesman for the Myanmar government did not respond to calls or messages. Inquiries to the military’s official media office and its embassy in Singapore were not answered.

Spread of drone warfare

In war zones across the world, the proliferation of drones made of inexpensive, readily accessible materials has enabled smaller armed groups to inflict serious damage on better-resourced opponents.

In Myanmar, rebels have used low-cost drones bought off the shelf or assembled using 3D printed parts to bomb targets deep inside military-held territory, including in urban centers like Naypyidaw.

During an offensive last October, rebels used drones to soften up military defenses before launching full-scale attacks, eventually driving the junta’s forces out of swaths of territory. At an emergency meeting of the National Defense and Security Council following the offensive, the military’s commander in chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing acknowledged that bases in the northern Shan state had come under the attack of “a large number of drones.”

Only after these losses did the military begin to take drone warfare seriously, said Min Zaw Oo, executive director of the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security. Over the past year, the military assembled new units dedicated to drones, introduced drone tactics into basic training for conscripts, and weaponized hundreds of drones, say soldiers who have defected from the military.

In April, the junta made a demonstration of its newfound capabilities during a protracted battle near the Thai border, where government forces retook the town of Kawkareik from ethnic Karen rebels and units in the pro-democracy People’s Defense Force (PDF). The military’s use of drones was pivotal, said pro-military state media. Independent security analysts agreed.

PDF soldier Nay Lin, 30, said he was en route to fight in Kawkareik when a bomb was dropped near his camp. Shrapnel wedged into his spine left him paralyzed. During the one and half years he had spent as a rebel soldier, he had been attacked by artillery and jet fighters dozens of times, Nay Lin said, and there had always been at least a few seconds before the explosions to run or jump into a bunker. Not so with drones.

“We can’t see or hear them,” he said, lying in a hospital bed in Thailand. “It’s only when the bombs land that we know they have come.”

Russian supplies

Russia’s defense ministry has publicly confirmed that Myanmar has at least one type of Russian surveillance drone, the Orlan 10E, in its arsenal.

But another Russian drone developer, Albatross has also been working with the Myanmar military, according to company emails that were leaked by Ukrainian hackers. The information in those emails was recently corroborated by Sayari, an economic risk intelligence firm, by reviewing company announcements, trade data and corporate records.

Sayari’s research, shared exclusively with The Post, shows the Myanmar military has since 2021 received training from Albatross and procured Albatross-M5 systems, which are long-range surveillance drones. Albatross executives have also discussed the possibility of producing Albatross systems and creating drone design schools inside Myanmar, according to the leaked emails.

In one email dated Feb. 7, 2024, that was addressed to the company’s chief executive, Aleksei Vadimovich Florov, an intermediary by the name of Alexander Dudov said he had gotten “on the inside of the UAV manufacturers in Myanmar” and expected to increase Albatross’ business there in the near term.

Florov, who was earlier this year placed on a sanctions list by the U.S. government, did not respond to inquiries.

When contacted via email, Dudov seemed initially to mistake a Post reporter as a representative of the Myanmar military. “We love and remember your beautiful country very much! With great pleasure, we are ready for more long-term mutually beneficial cooperation between our friendly countries!” he wrote.

“Albatross and the Myanmar military have seemingly sought to keep their relationship under wraps,” said Savanna Slaughter, an analyst at Sayari who led the research on Albatross. “As Albatross claims to be boosting production capacity … this becomes a potentially deadlier relationship for the junta to have in its back pocket.”

David Eubank, director of Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a nonprofit humanitarian group operating in rebel-controlled areas, said since April his team has been stalked by drones that have dropped munitions within 20 to 50 yards of them - markedly closer than before.

In early September, Aung Zay Ya, FBR’s deputy leader in the southeastern state of Kayah, said he witnessed a military drone strike demolish a two-story building with people inside. Villagers thought the building would keep them safe but the drone’s munitions reduced it to rubble. “It was like a giant knocking over an ant mound … The building just disappeared,” said Aung Zay Ya. At least five people were killed — all civilians, he said.

Tan reported from Singapore, Quinley reported from Kayah state, Myanmar and Yan Naing reported from Bangkok. Mary Ilyushina contributed reporting from Berlin.

previous coverage

• Southeast Asian leaders meet in Laos to discuss Myanmar war and disputed sea
• Myanmar’s military government launches a census seen as a way to gather information about opponents