High priority
The cost of this equipment can be a factor, but intelligence to support military operations has always received a high priority in the rare foreign currency of Myanmar.
After the advent of an almost civil government in 2012, Myanmar took advantage of more options to collect and analyze the intelligence of images than ever.
There was an increasingly wide range of satellite images available online, both freely and thanks to commercial arrangements. This included high resolution electro-optical photography and infrared images.
In addition, the armed forces would have operated around 11 Sky-02A surveillance drones, bought in China. 22 Others were reportedly built in Myanmar, appointed the Yellow Cat A2. These unmanned air vehicles (UEAV) could transport digital video cameras and infrared video cameras.
Between 2013 and 2015, Myanmar bought a dozen UAV CH-3A, also in China. CH-3A was a combat drone, and not the most sophisticated of the unanswered platforms in China, but it was able to carry out long-range surveillance missions and had a useful imagery capacity.
In 2017, for example, the Bangladesh government complained that Myanmar had sent drones above its border to spy on the Rohingyas refugee movements and, probably, the Salvation Army of the Rohingyas Rebelle Arakan. After the 2021 coup, CH-3 surveillance drones were identified on the street demonstrations by the civil disobedience movement.
