Myanmar intends to create a submarine force by 2015
While the military continues its attacks on ethnic rebels in Burma’s
north, the country’s Commander-in-Chief, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, has
been out of the country in recent days. After meeting with his Pakistani
counterpart in Islamabad, he toured the offices of Heavy Industries
Taxila, a major regional defense contractor. In Serbia, he sat down for
discussions with Yugoimport SDPR, a state-owned weapons exporter. Both
businesses specialize in the sale of tanks, armored personnel carriers
and heavy artillery.
When Burma’s generals consider strategy, they always have one eye on
internal opponents and another on their regional neighbors. While the
size of Burma’s standing army dwarfs those of both Bangladesh and
Thailand, a ban on arms sales from the European Union and United States
has severely impeded the combat capabilities of the country’s armed
forces. Indeed, Min Aung Hlaing has been outspoken about the need to
modernize, to the point of deflecting questions about his political
ambitions by insisting he was fully devoted to bringing the military into the 21st century.
This modernization is always foremost in the minds Burma’s military
leaders when they take their shopping lists abroad, and the top brass
has shown a particular interest in improving the country’s moribund
naval fleet.
The discovery of lucrative oil and gas fields in the Bay of Bengal
has no doubt served as a wakeup call to Burma’s military leadership for
the need to deploy a credible deterrent over the country’s
2,000-kilometer coastline. A maritime boundary dispute, eventually
resolved in a 2012 judgement by the International Tribunal for the Law
of the Sea, led to a confrontation between Bengladeshi and Burmese naval
ships after Burma began offshore oil exploration in the contested area.
In the years since, four new frigates and several fast attack craft
have entered service. Maung Aung Myoe, the Burmese defense analyst and
author of “Building the Tatmadaw”, says that the Navy is plans to expand
its fleet with up to a dozen more frigates and other offshore vessels
in the near future.
This expansion appears to extend to the acquisition of submarines, a
possible response to Bangladesh’s plans to purchase two from China.
Discussions with North Korea in 2003—which apparently canvassed the
purchase two small vessels—ultimately came to nothing, but reports
suggest that the Navy still considers submarines an essential component
of its force projection goals.
During a visit to Russia in 2013, Min Aung Hlaing expressed an
interest in purchasing two Kilo-class submarines, relics of the last
years of the Soviet era which have since mostly been sold off and
exported. While no acquisitions have been confirmed as yet, the same
year reports surfaced that 20 Burmese naval officers had received
submarine training in Pakistan.
Burma’s Navy is presently equipped only to deal with coastal
engagements, and is incapable of more sophisticated territorial defense
and sea denial operations. According to Maung Aung Myoe, this will
remain the case for the near future. As more offshore projects come
online, however, the military is likely to consider fleet expansion an
increasing matter of urgency.
Back in April, the commander-in-chief was seen at naval exercises off
the coast of Arakan State. Codenamed Sea Shield, the combined fleet
exercise practiced maneuvers near Manaung Island with the participation
of 22 ships and nearly 1200 soldiers. Min Aung Hlaing would have
undoubtedly felt cause to be proud of the Navy’s rapid expansion, but
it’s reasonable to assume he returned to Naypyidaw with one question on
his mind: what’s next on the shopping list?
Military Power of Bangladesh Bangladesh Army Bangladesh Navy Bangladesh Air Force
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