A thermobaric bomb weighing 250 kg is attached to an A-5 fighter jet at Tada-U airbase in Mandalay in 2017. / The Irrawaddy
Shunned by foreign governments around the world, Myanmar’s junta is desperate to promote ties with a handful of countries, led by China and Russia – its key arms suppliers. Testament to that fact is the Myanmar Air Force (MAF), which is mainly armed by China and Russia.
It comes as no surprise, then, to see the air force bombing villages with Chinese-made A-5 fighter jets and the upgraded K-8W, which is assembled jointly by Chinese technicians and the Myanmar military’s ordnance factory. The A-5 is normally equipped with China-made 250 kg thermobaric bombs while the K-8W uses 250 kg low-drag bombs.
“When [the Myanmar military] buys aircraft from China, it can’t buy aircraft alone. It has to buy the set of bombs and rockets used along with the aircraft,” explained an air force defector.
Since the February 2021 coup, the regime has mainly used K-8Ws to bomb ethnic revolutionary organizations and People’s Defense Forces. One notable example of a junta air attack involving K-8Ws was the raid on ANang Pa village in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township in October last year. Dozens of people, many of whom were civilians, were killed and more than 100 injured in the aerial attack, which targeted a concert held by the Kachin Independence Army.
The air force, which has carried out numerous attacks on non-military targets including schools, healthcare facilities and displacement camps, is also using aircraft and rockets purchased from Russia, according to MAF defectors.
International sanctions forced the MAF to rely on Chinese weapons until the early 2000s. But frustrated over the quality of China-made aircraft, it began looking for other suppliers. In 2015 and 2016, the military purchased Yak-130 fighter jets and weapon systems from Russia in deals brokered by crony arms dealer U Tay Za. The Yak-130s were commissioned into service in 2018 at Tada-U airbase in Mandalay. The MAF has also purchased MI-35 and MI-29 helicopter gunships from Russia.
The Yak-130 was used for training only until the military coup in 2021. Since then, it has become one of the regime’s main weapons in its struggle to contain resistance to military rule.
“[The military] can use Yak-130s widely because it purchased bombs with the aircraft and can continue to buy bombs from Russia,” said the MAF defector.
The Yak-130 uses Russia-made guided KAB-500 bombs.
In April, a Yak-130 jet dropped KAB-500 bombs and a 100–500 kg thermobaric bomb on Pazi Gyi village in Sagaing Region’s Kantbalu Township, massacring around 175 civilians. The bombing marked the military’s deadliest attack since seizing power in 2021.
After reviewing photos and video of victims at the attack scene, Human Rights Watch concluded the strike was conducted with a thermobaric bomb designed to inflict maximum casualties and damage over a wide area.
This type of weapon is often called a vapor-cloud or fuel-air explosive (FAE) bomb because it uses oxygen from the air to generate a high-temperature explosion.
