The Burmese military has begun using Chinese Communist Party drones to monitor protests in Myanmar and use them to support its counter-protest operations, global open-source defense intelligence agency Jane’s Information Group said in a report released on Thursday (April 8).
The report, authored by Kelvin Wong, Jane’s chief unmanned systems analyst, said, “Images circulating on social media in March this year showed that the Burmese government military has begun using its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to monitor protests in central Burma. At least two of the drones were recorded flying low enough to be ‘visible and audible’ to residents of Mandalay city.”
The report also said the images included a Rainbow-3 drone (CH-3A), which was developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), a Chinese state-owned company.
Publicly available information indicates that it is an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by radio-controlled equipment or its own programmed control device. The UAV is powered by a piston engine and has a range of up to 2,400 kilometers and a cruising time of up to 12 hours, during which no refueling is required. The aircraft is equipped with camera and photographic devices and can be used as a reconnaissance aircraft.
The Jane’s Information Group report said that “some 10 to 12 Rainbow-3 UAVs, the equivalent of a squadron of aircraft, are believed to have been delivered to Myanmar between 2013 and 2015” and that the aircraft are primarily used for intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance in support of its long-term counter-insurgency operations against ethnic insurgent groups.
The report also said that military drones such as the Rainbow-3 drones can help the military with planning and decision-making, and that “drones over Mandalay are likely to be used to observe ground activity, allowing the military to visually monitor the situation in real time, identify specific threats, and directly command security forces as needed.”
Protests against the military government have continued since the Feb. 1 coup that toppled the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and have been violently suppressed by security forces. As of Thursday, some 614 people had been killed in the military’s violent crackdown, according to the Aid Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Huang also wrote that the deployment of the drones may be a psychological warfare tactic “aimed at intimidating the people” in addition to gathering intelligence.
“For the Burmese military, this harmful psychological impact could ultimately provide a key advantage to the military as it tries to appease a population increasingly resistant to its rule,” the report said. The report said.
The New York Times reported that critics say the Burmese military, while briefly sharing power with the civilian government, maintains a dominant position in the economy and powerful government sector, using the “facade of democracy” for sensitive cybersecurity and defense procurement.
Some of these “dual-use” technologies have been reported as both legitimate law enforcement tools and tools of repression. These technologies were used by the Burmese Defense Force to target opponents of the Feb. 1 coup, “a practice that echoes actions taken by the Chinese Communist Party, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and other governments against critics.
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