Myanmar - Defense Industry - Production
Myanmar (Burma) since the 1950s has its own military industry, which was facilitated by a prolonged civil war against various ethnic groups and soldiers of the Kuomintang. In the nomenclature of weapons produced at these factories, there are letters BA (Burmese army) or MA (Myanmar Army). This structure, called National Defense Industry Directorate, is state-owned and initially included 13 military factories that produced about 70 types of products that are most needed for the needs of the land forces, air force and navy of Myanmar. The main products were light arms, air defense guns, a wide range of ammunition, etc.
The first locally built small arm is known as BA-52 or “Ne Win Sten”, [Ne Win was the state's leader at the time] a Myanmar copy of the Italian 9-mm TZ45 sub-machine gun. Although the design was rough, and the performance unreliable, it remained a standard sub-machine gun with the infantry until the mid-1980s. In addition to local production of dozens of other light arms, the TatmadawKyi continued to buy small arms and heavy mortars from foreign sources.
The Tatmadaw-Kyi continued to produce APCs in the 1990s. One of the latest productions was a tracked-armored carrier equipped with 37-mm twin barrel Anti-Aircraft self-propelled guns for air defence batteries.
The production of heavy weapons by Myanmar Heavy Industries was established with Ukrainian assistance mainly to assemble and maintain the BTR-3U fleet of the Myanmar armed forces. According to Jane's, as of 2019 Myanmar had shown interest in cooperating with Thailand on a project to develop an 8x8 AAPC amphibious armored personnel carrier, which is being created for the Thai Marine Corps.
Diplomats are paid to lie for their country. In 2009 Ukraine told the US Government it was no longer exporting weapons to Burma, and claimed not to have exported T-72 tanks to South Sudan [despite U.S. satellite photos to the contrary]. The Ukrainian government claimed it was "just wrapping up existing contracts", and had been reducing its exports to Burma since 2005. In 2008 Ukrainian exports to Burma were said to be "as good as zero" in part due to previous U.S. warnings, and Ukraine had not signed any new contracts with Burma in the last two and one half years. Current exports were just spare parts. The remaining business was so small that the company involved had recalled all of its workers from Burma.
Under the contract signed in 2014, the Ukrainian Civil Code "Ukroboronprom" supplies to Myanmar set of equipment for the production of welded hulls for light armored vehicles BTR-4U and 2S1U. Apparently, it was planned to organize the production of armored personnel carriers BTR-4U in Myanmar (apparently, another modification of the BTR-4). The designation 2S1U previously had the option of modernizing the 122-mm self-propelled howitzer 2S1, however, in this case, perhaps, it means organizing the assembly in Myanmar of tracked vehicles based on the chassis and the 2S1 armored hull.
In 2016, the state-owned company Ukrspetsexport continued deliveries to the Defense Industry Directorate, the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Myanmar under contract No. USE-16.1-27-K / KE-14, concluded in 2014, a set of equipment for the production of welded housings for lightly armored vehicles BTR-4U and 2S1U. In particular, according to the list of equipment, a 15-ton assembly and welding stand for the BTR-4U TO53.1329-270 was shipped for assembly and testing of the hull configuration with a total cost of $ 44,301,966.
Earlier it was known about deliveries to Myanmar in 2003-2006 assembly kits for 92 armored personnel carriers BTR-3E. In addition, the state-owned company Ukrspetsexport under contract No.USE-16.1-30-K / KE-16 in 2016 supplied Dp, Kong Myint Tha Compound (Mayangone Township, Yangon, Republic Of The Union Of Myanmar) with a set of spare parts for earlier sold radar 36D6. For example, one mounting kit 6UF-43A vYu4.075.242-01 of statements equipment weighing 25 kg cost Burmese in 86700 dollars.
According to an unconfirmed press report, Singapore has provided military equipment -- guns, rockets, armored personnel carriers, and grenade launchers, as well as crowd control equipment, sophisticated telecom monitoring devices, and computers and networking equipment -- for Burma's defense ministry and army. The same report suggested that former Singapore Technologies subsidiaries are involved in selling arms to Burma (the GOS dismantled Singapore Technologies in 2004). Although there is only sparse publicly available information citing business activities between these ST companies -- ST Electronics, ST Aerospace, ST Engineering or ST Marine -- and Burma, a source at ST Kinetics (ST Engineering's transportation arm) confirmed that it sells unspecified equipment to Burma through a dealer in Thailand.
Ukrspecexport, Ukraine’s military import/export agency, signed a joint venture agreement with Myanmar in March 2019 for the construction of an armored vehicle assembly plant. Ukraine’s partner delivery to Myanmar includes a production line to assemble the BTR-4U wheeled 8×8 armored personnel carrier, 2S1U self-propelled howitzer based on the MT-LBu multi-purpose chassis. The 2S1 Gvosdika is a 122 mm self-propelled howitzer fitted with a D-32 122 mm rifled howitzer. It is a modified variant of the D-30 towed howitzer. It is fitted with a load assisting system. Maximum rate of fire is 4-5 rounds per minute. In 2018, there was already talk of resuming Ukraine's production of 122-mm ACS 2S1 "Carnation".
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