Operators can easily stay concealed, making them perhaps the ultimate weapon for guerrilla warfare. This video shows the Kachin forces sinking a Myanmar military transport ship on the Irrawaddy River in Kachin State, northern Myanmar, using a suicide drone attack; the moment of sinking is shown in the second clip. Since the 2021 coup, the civil war between the military and the Kachin Independence Army has intensified.
Video
Drone Tactics from Ukraine Reach Myanmar
The recent drone suicide attack on a transport vessel is just one example of a tactic that has been spreading within Myanmar in recent years. According to data from the analysis group ACLED, the conflict in Myanmar ranks third globally in terms of recorded drone usage, trailing only Ukraine and Russia.
Attacks using FPV (first-person view) suicide drones—a tactic originally developed by the Ukrainian military to target Russian helicopters—have proliferated to conflicts and criminal organizations worldwide due to their low cost. One such instance involved a Colombian drug cartel shooting down a Black Hawk helicopter. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) also claims to have shot down a Myanmar military transport helicopter near Shwegu in the north using a similar type of drone in May 2025; furthermore, with incidents such as damage to a passenger aircraft at Myitkyina Airport in February 2026, the scope of these attacks is expanding beyond frontline combat to include rear-area facilities.
Since the coup, the Kachin Independence Organization has been one of the country’s largest armed groups waging a continuous campaign against the military alongside other anti-coup forces, and this attack on the transport vessel is a continuation of that ongoing struggle.
Comments