Pie in the Sky
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Former intelligence officers who were purged in 2004 and who then established contacts with opposition groups in exile or defected have disclosed that the regime is eager to install more radar stations, and will continue to expand its air defense network along the borders with Thailand and Bangladesh, and near the Andaman Sea. Burma’s major air bases in Rangoon, Hmawbi, Meikthila, Tanessarim and in other areas such as Irrawaddy Division, Kachin, Mon and Shan States have been substantially expanded. Smaller airfields and helicopter landing areas have also been established in Shan State.
Burma’s intact trading status with its neighbors, founded on lucrative gas deals and hydro-electric power projects, gives the junta not only the money to invest in new military hardware but also direct access to such suppliers as China, India and Russia.
Yet the air force is not without problems. Western arms embargoes deny the generals access to much new technology and advanced training, privileges which are enjoyed to the full by neighboring Thailand. The amount of training available to pilots, both in-flight and on the ground, and the possibilities to participate in joint armed forces exercises are severely limited, western defense analysts note.
Hardware from non-western sources is often found to be sub-standard and unreliable. The performance of jet fighters bought from China was faulted by Burmese military leaders, and Burmese pilots were reported to be unhappy about flying F-7 jet fighters after several crashed. The aircraft were known in many an officers’ mess as “flying coffins.”
Maintenance and access to spare parts also pose problems for Burma’s air force. The regime spent several years, for instance, desperately searching for spare parts for a fleet of Bell 205 helicopters donated by the US in 1975 as an American contribution to Burma’s anti-narcotics campaign. The regime used them, however, in counter-insurgency campaigns. After 1988, the US halted supplies of military equipment.
Dissident sources in Thailand told The Irrawaddy that the regime found spare parts for 12 of the helicopters on the international black market, reportedly conducting the $2 million deal through a shady Japanese business cartel with ties to former drug lord Khun Sa. The reports could not be confirmed independently—but they must be causing some disquiet among pilots uncertain about the ability not just of the country’s air force to get off the ground.
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