Enlistment was slow, owing to popular apathyand the absence of strong government support. The government undertook in late 1948 to raise five new army battalions, through revival of the pre-war Burma Auxiliary Force, recruited from all races in Burma. Most army troops were scattered about the country in small garrisons, and the police were even more thinly distributed. There were no tactical units higher than a battalion, and no heavy weapons. The Anglo-Burmese Treaty provided for British military advisers who, however, did not have much success in developing the Burmese army into an efficient and effective force.
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The army and military police were organized along British lines and were supplied with British equipment. Karen and PVO defections, however, and the immobilization of some Karen units as a result of Karen-Burman strife, reduced these regular army and police figures. To meet the numerous challenges to its authority, at independence the Burmese Government originally had a total military and civil police force of some 40,000, an army of 23,000 men, and a miniscule air force and navy. Karens declined to do so Burman-Karen animosities had been inflamed by colonial policies that granted Karens a separate voting roll in the national election and had recruited Christian Karens into the Burma Army to put down Burman-led rebellion. By virtue of their relative numbers, army officers filled most position in the integrated ministry staffs and held most national political and administrative assignments.Įnvisioning a union in which formerly separated peoples would be joined in a framework providing for a substantial degree of diversity, Thakin Aung San gained Shan, Chin, and Kachin agreement to join with the interim Burmese government. It may also have auxiliary forces subordinated to it for specific operations.īeginning as a light infantry force, the army is the largest and by far the dominant branch of the nation's armed forces. For example, the Western Regional Command, responsible for Rakhine State, had MOC-5, MOC-9 and MOC-15 under its command as well as other infantry battalions. Each Regional Military Command will have between one and three “Combat Divisions” subordinated to it, usually called Military Operational Commands (MOCs), which are comprised of as many as ten infantry battalions. For example, BSO-3 is comprised of three RMCs, the Western Regional Command, Southern Regional Command, and the South-western Military Command. Each geographic region is then divided among Regional Military Commands (RMCs).
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Each BSO is responsible for a particular geographic region. The Army is comprised of six Bureaus of Special Operations (BSO), which are considered the first level of operational-level command.