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       Drones Changed This Civil War, and Linked Rebels to the World

       Consumer technologies are altering the course of the battle in Myanmar, and rebel drone units are taking notes on Ukraine and other conflicts.

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       Members of a Karenni Nationalities Defense Force drone team, including the commander, 3D, at far left, and the pilot, Ko Shan Gyi, working the controls, as they test a drone at a resistance force base in Karenni State, Myanmar, in February.

       By Hannah Beech and Paul Mozur

       Photographs by Adam Ferguson

       Hannah Beech reported from Karenni State, in Myanmar, and Paul Mozur from Taipei, Taiwan.

       May 4, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET

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       In flip-flops and shorts, one of the finest soldiers in a resistance force battling the military junta in Myanmar showed off his weaponry. It was, he apologized, mostly in pieces.

       The rebel, Ko Shan Gyi, glued panels of plastic shaped by a 3D printer. Nearby, electrical innards foraged from Chinese-made drones used for agricultural purposes were arrayed on the ground, their wires exposed as if awaiting surgery.

       Other parts needed to construct homemade drones, including chunks of Styrofoam studded with propellers, crowded a pair of leaf-walled shacks. Together, they could somewhat grandly be considered the armory of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force. A laser cutter was poised halfway through carving out a flight control unit. The generator powering the workshop had quit. It wasn’t clear when there would be electricity again.

       Despite the ragtag conditions, rebel drone units have managed to upend the power balance in Myanmar. By most measures, the military that wrested power from a civilian administration in Myanmar three years ago is far bigger and better equipped than the hundreds of militias fighting to reclaim the country. The junta has at its disposal Russian fighter jets and Chinese missiles.

       But with little more than instructions crowdsourced online and parts ordered from China, the resistance forces have added ballast to what might seem a hopelessly asymmetrical civil war. The techniques they are using would not be unfamiliar to soldiers in Ukraine, Yemen or Sudan.

       The map locates Karenni State, a state in eastern Myanmar, adjacent to Thailand’s northwestern border. It also locates Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, which is west of Karenni State.

       India

       China

       MYANMAR

       KaRENNI STATE

       laos

       Naypyidaw

       Irrawaddy R.

       Yangon

       Thailand

       Andaman

       Sea

       200 miles

       By The New York Times

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       Hannah Beech is a Times reporter based in Bangkok who has been covering Asia for more than 25 years. She focuses on in-depth and investigative stories. More about Hannah Beech

       Paul Mozur is the global technology correspondent for The Times, based in Taipei. Previously he wrote about technology and politics in Asia from Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul. More about Paul Mozur

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