Myanmar military using drones in counteroffensive to retake Kachin State town

As part of a broader ongoing counteroffensive aimed at regaining territory from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), junta forces deployed unmanned drones this week in their attempts to recapture a battalion base in Momauk Township, Kachin State. The KIA and Kachin People’s Defence Forces (Kachin PDF) took over the town of Momauk—around 100 miles south of the state capital Myitkyina and 10 miles east of Bhamo—in August of this year after about four months of fighting. According to KIA spokesperson Col. Naw Bu, junta forces based in Bhamo have advanced towards Momauk with the help of artillery, air support, and unmanned drones, launching attacks on the anti-junta forces to recapture the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 347 base in Momauk. “On days when the fighting gets intense, they use more than ten drones at once to conduct bombing raids,” Col. Naw Bu said. “They're using very large drones capable of carrying two to three 120mm bombs,” he added. The junta forces reportedly continue to launch drone attacks even when shelling, airstrikes, and ground assaults are paused. In the three years since Myanmar’s military coup, anti-junta ethnic armed groups and resistance forces have been perfecting the use of drones themselves to capture support ground assaults on the army’s bases. The military council also now claims to have introduced drone operation exercises in their training. In their laudatory coverage of junta chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing’s trip to China last week, junta-controlled media reported that he visited a drone factory owned by a Chongqing-based company. Myanmar junta chief touring a drone manufacturing facility during a diplomatic visit to China on November 8 (Photo: Junta Ministry of Information) The junta has concentrated forces on the counteroffensive to recapture Momauk, which began in late August, apparently due to its proximity to Bhamo, the site of the military’s Military Operations Command 21 (MOC-21) headquarters. A woman from Bhamo living in Momauk told Myanmar Now that the town’s residents could still hear artillery fire every day, adding that she had been forced to close her shop in Momauk and take shelter at a nearby monastery. “I still don't dare return to Momauk. Even though they said the fighting has calmed somewhat these days, there's still constant artillery fire. With the aircraft flying in too, I don’t dare go back home yet,” she said. Although the junta ground forces and armoured vehicles have advanced to within three miles of Momauk, the KIA-led forces have fought fiercely to repulse them, and have so far been able to hold them back from entering the town. Militia outpost captured in Special Region 1 KIA-led forces in Tsawlaw Township—part of Kachin State’s Special Region 1—captured the Langse base belonging to the junta-backed Kachin Border Guard Force (Kachin BGF) militia on Sunday. KIA fighters and their allies advanced into Special Region 1 in September, capturing the town of Pangwa, Chipwe Township where the Kachin BGF maintains a headquarters. The KIA offensive also extended to the towns of Chipwe and Tsawlaw in the special region as well as the nearby towns of Sadung and Hpi Maw and the border trade town of Kanpaikti. Only Kanpaikti is still under junta control. According to Col. Naw Bu, scores of BGF and junta-backed militia members have defected to the KIA side during the battles in Special Region 1. He noted that the KIA is actively soliciting defections from these groups. While fighting has mostly subsided in Kachin State outside of Momauk Township and Special Region 1, local sources said the junta appeared to be massing its forces in the jade production hub of Hpakant, around 100 miles west of the special region. Sources in Hpakant said two junta helicopters dropped off reinforcement troops and ammunition at the junta's tactical hill base in the town on Sunday evening. Starting in March of this year, the KIA and its allies have carried out offensives over wide swaths of territory, capturing the northern Shan State town of Mabein as well as a dozen towns in Kachin State.

Myanmar military using drones in counteroffensive to retake Kachin State town

As junta forces advanced towards the town of Momauk to recapture it from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the KIA seized a base belonging to a junta-backed militia in Kachin State’s Special Region 1

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