Today, the Myanmar Navy is headquartered in Naypyidaw and has 19,000 troops and about 125 ships. These include Naval Strategic Command (Naypyidaw), Naval Training Center (Seki), Naval Dockyard Command (Yangon), Naval Central Hydrographic Station (Yangon), Naval Central Diving and Salvage Station (Yangon), Naval Central Engineering Station (Yangon), Naval Central Depot (Yangon), Naval Communications Station (Yangon), Naval Weapons Station (Seki). For a long time, the Burmese Marine Corps mostly used Chinese-style equipment and Indian counterinsurgency training;
The Myanmar Navy is divided into defense zones by naval military districts, with five naval military regions and four fleets, each of which has about 1-8 naval bases, namely:
- The Irrawaddy Military Region, with its headquarters in Yangon, consists of the Den Risong Naval Base, the Bosheng Naval Base, and the Cocoa Island Naval Radar Station, which is responsible for the estuary of the Irrawaddy River and the surrounding waters, and the 1st Fleet is stationed here;
- De Myawaddy Military Region, with its headquarters in Sittwe, consists of Kyaukphyu Naval Base and Nbeburi Naval Base, which are responsible for the mouth of the Karatan River and the surrounding waters, where the 3rd Fleet is stationed;
- Zebra Wadi Military Region, with its headquarters on Haiji Island, responsible for the mouth of the Bosheng River and its surrounding waters, where the 4th Fleet is stationed;
- The Miaowadi Military Region, with its headquarters in Mawlamyine, is responsible for the coast of the Nu River estuary;
- The Tanintharyi Military Region, with its headquarters in Tangui, consists of Zedaiki Naval Base, Myli Naval Base, Balai Naval Base, Kadan Naval Base, Sakandi Naval Base, Rambi Naval Base, Pearl Island Naval Base, and Zadkarle Naval Base, which is responsible for the sea area of the Tanintharyi area, where the 2nd Fleet is stationed.
The first battalion of the Burmese Marine Corps was established in 1964, followed by a second battalion in 1967, and at present, the Burmese Navy has four battalions of marines with about 3,200 personnel, mainly responsible for counter-guerrilla warfare in coastal areas. In addition, there are naval base air defense units and naval aviation formations; The Myanmar Naval Air Force has one ATR42 maritime patrol aircraft, five BN-2 Islanders light maritime patrol aircraft, and five AS365 utility helicopters; It is mainly deployed in Rakhine State, Tanintharyi Province and the Irrawaddy River region, and has no drones, lacks anti-drone training and equipment, and uses more Indian-style anti-guerrilla warfare tactics against civilian forces;
The mobile firepower of the configuration includes 63/63 A amphibious tanks, amphibious armored vehicles, trucks, etc., and it is not a highly mobile elite unit! As a result, it is used by the Burmese government for the defense of key targets and special operations, and sometimes even the work of maintaining law and order is entrusted to it, and its functions are chaotic and it cannot play its role; In the Indian-style counterinsurgency system, the Myanmar Navy's 31 coastal landing craft and 2 general-purpose landing craft did not play a role in counterinsurgency, but were repeatedly sunk by civilian forces.
Myanmar's coastal economic belt is the lifeblood of the country, and it is seriously threatened by the rebels, and stabilizing the coastal situation can stabilize the overall situation of the country, so the Burmese Marine Corps must withdraw from the daily security and anti-guerrilla warfare affairs and devote itself to the battle to defend the coastal strategic targets: at present, the Myanmar Navy ships have become the supporting firepower to defend the coastal economic targets;
The personnel of the Burmese Marine Corps are of relatively high quality and have a relatively tenacious will to fight, and they can be used as a strategic force after changing their equipment: first of all, they must update their tactics and concepts, abandon unrealistic Indian-style tactics and concepts, and adopt Chinese-style special tactics; Second, it is necessary to comprehensively update the equipment for public security warfare and anti-guerrilla warfare;
If it is to play a role in counterinsurgency, it must return to its roots: high mobility and special operations – both of which can be seen in the campaign to defend strategic objectives along Burma's coast.
Air transport capabilities must be rapidly expanded: the purchase of more Y-12 military transport aircraft to improve the Marine Corps' operational air mobility capabilities; Purchase Mi-171V5 and Z-9 assault helicopter groups to strengthen tactical mobility and precision ground strike capabilities; Purchase more cruise missiles and drone swarms to cooperate with the Marine Corps' special operations to strike at the rebels' command structure, support firepower, and mechanized corps; In addition, the amphibious vehicle family needs to be fully updated, and more 63A tanks, amphibious vehicle families, and amphibious mobile artillery guns need to be purchased for assault and small-scale amphibious landings;
Individual equipment needs to be upgraded for night combat, anti-drone, protection, underwater equipment: In fact, the rebels in the chaos in Myanmar have strong support from the United States and India, and they have more retired Western special forces, and eliminating them requires reciprocal equipment and tactics – the Burmese Marines can receive similar support from allies.