Between October 21 and November 8, 2022, three dedicated UAV units affiliated with the Lion Battalion Commando, operating under the auspices of the Kawthoolei Army, documented their testing and operational use of UAVs weaponized for combat in southeastern Myanmar’s Kayin State, including rotary-wing quadcopters and hexacopters, and fixed-wing drones. The latter platforms were modified with servo motor-based dispensers in which single improvised bomblets were loaded horizontally. To date, fixed-wing UAVs have not been evidenced in use by militants in Myanmar, while the use of weaponized multi-rotor UAVs has expanded in 2022. As in other fighting arenas, where the use of weaponized fixed-wing drones is limited in scope and efficiency due to the difficulty in precisely aiming from a moving aircraft, the Kawthoolei Army’s weaponized platforms are also likely to have limited success. It is nonetheless plausible that larger, more effective armed fixed-wing UAVs will be soon introduced in the region, as well as alternative developments for fixed-wing platforms, such as their use as loitering munitions.
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