Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services
Head of the Myanmar's military
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The Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services (Burmese: တပ်မတော်ကာကွယ်ရေးဦးစီးချုပ်, romanized: Tatmadaw Kakweyay Uzigyoke) is the supreme commander of the Tatmadaw and all armed forces in Myanmar according to the constitution.[3] The Tatmadaw, officially translated as "Defence Services",[3][4] is an independent branch of government under control of the commander-in-chief and not answerable to the president of Myanmar, though certain actions of the commander-in-chief require the approval of the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC), which is chaired by the president.[5] According to the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar, the commander-in-chief is appointed by the president upon nomination by the NDSC; the commander-in-chief is also a member of the NDSC.[3]
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| Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services | |
|---|---|
| တပ်မတော်ကာကွယ်ရေးဦးစီးချုပ် | |
Flag of the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services | |
| Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services | |
| Style | His Excellency |
| Type | Supreme Commander |
| Abbreviation | C-in-C DS |
| Member of | National Defence and Security Council |
| Seat | Naypyidaw, Myanmar |
| Appointer |
|
| Precursor | Inspector General, Burma Army |
| Formation | 1 May 1947 (as GOC); 10 May 1989 (as C-in-C DS) |
| First holder | Major General Lechmere Thomas (as GOC); General Saw Maung (as C-in-C DS) |
| Unofficial names | တပ်ချုပ်၊ ကာချုပ် |
| Deputy | Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services |
| Website | Official website |
The Constitution frames the commander-in-chief as an expressly political office, stating he "participates in the national political leadership role of the state". Accordingly, he has expansive governance powers under the Constitution, including the ability to appoint the leadership of the Home, Border, and Defence ministries, the right to appoint 25% of the members of both houses of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (which appoints the president), the ability to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president, as well as having effective voting control on the NDSC. One of the most significant executive powers retained by the president is discretion in calling meetings of the NDSC.[6][7] Article 418 of the 2008 Constitution allows the Commander-in-Chief broad authority over the government if the president declares a state of emergency in coordination with the NDSC. This happened after the 2021 coup d'état: military-installed acting president Myint Swe declared a state of emergency and transferred power to Commander-in-Chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who then formed a military junta—the State Administration Council.[3][8][9]
The current Commander-in-Chief is General Ye Win Oo, since 30 March 2026.[10]
History
The position was created as "General Officer Commanding (GOC) Burma Army" (Burmese: ဗမာ့တပ်မတော်စစ်ဦးစီးချုပ်) on 1 May 1947.[11]: 155 [12]: 83
After the establishment of the War Office in May 1948, the GOC was the head of the combined military forces of army, navy, and air force.[12]: 85 For this broader authority, the term "Supreme Commander-in-Chief of All Armed Forces of the Union of Burma" (ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာနိုင်ငံလက်နက်ကိုင်တပ်ပေါင်းစုံစစ်သေနာပတိချုပ်) was also used.[13][14][15]
On 28 September 1955, with the unification of Burma Army (ဗမာ့တပ်မတော်; Bama Tatmadaw), Burma Navy (ဗမာ့ရေတပ်မတော်; Bama Ye Tatmadaw) and Burma Air Force (မြန်မာ့လေတပ်မတော်; Myanma Le Tatmadaw): 187 into a single Tatmadaw or Defence Services, the position was renamed as "Chief of Staff, Defence Services" (ကာကွယ်ရေးဦးစီးချုပ်) and given all powers previously held by the GOC Burma Army, the CO Burma Navy, and the CO Burma Air Force.[12]: 128
On 10 May 1989, the position was further renamed as "Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services" (တပ်မတော်ကာကွယ်ရေးဦးစီးချုပ်) in 1989.[16]
List of GOC/CS/C-in-CDS
(Dates in italics indicate de facto continuation of office)
| No. | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) |
Term of office | Notes | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | |||||
| General Officer Commanding, Burma Army | |||||||
| * |  |
Major-General Lechmere Cay Thomas (1897–1981) |
1 May 1947 | 4 January 1948 | 248 days | Previously served as Inspector General. His appointment as GOC is recorded in the military's official history but he is not acknowledged as the first person in the official list of CS/C-in-C DS. | [11][12][17] |
| Supreme Commander-in-Chief of All Armed Forces of the Union of Burma; General Officer Commanding, Burma Army | |||||||
| 1 |  |
Lieutenant General Smith Dun (1906–1979) |
4 January 1948 | 31 January 1949 | 1 year, 27 days | Ethnic Karen, forced to retire due to the Karen conflict. Listed as the first CS/C-in-C DS in the official list even though he had retired before 1955. | [18][19][20] |
| 2 | _(cropped).jpg) |
General Ne Win (1910–2002) |
1 February 1949 | 28 September 1955 | 6 years, 239 days | Oversaw the unification of Burmese armed forces. | [18][19][20] |
| Chief of Staff, Defence Services | |||||||
| (2) | |
General Ne Win (1910–2002) |
28 September 1955 | 20 April 1972 | 16 years, 205 days | Later became president and Chairman of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). | [18][19][20] |
| 3 |  |
General San Yu (1910–2002) |
20 April 1972 | 7 March 1974 | 1 year, 321 days | Later became president. | [18][19][20] |
| 4 | .jpg) |
General Tin Oo (1927–2024) |
8 March 1974 | 6 March 1976 | 1 year, 364 days | Later became vice-chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD). | [18][19][20] |
| 5 |  |
General Thura Kyaw Htin (1925–1996) |
6 March 1976 | 4 November 1985 | 9 years, 243 days | [18][19][20] | |
| 6 | |
General Saw Maung (1928–1997) |
4 November 1985 | 10 May 1989 | 3 years, 187 days | [18][19][20] | |
| Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services | |||||||
| (6) | |
Senior General Saw Maung (1928–1997) |
10 May 1989 | 24 April 1992 | 2 years, 350 days | [18][19][20] | |
| 7 | .jpg) |
Senior General Than Shwe (born 1933) |
24 April 1992 | 30 March 2011 | 18 years, 340 days | [18][19][20] | |
| 8 | .jpg) |
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (born 1956) |
30 March 2011 | 30 March 2026 | 15 years | [18] | |
| 9 | |
General Ye Win Oo (born 1966) |
30 March 2026 | Incumbent | 108 days | [18] | |
Timeline
List of other historical C-in-C and IG
Supreme Commander-in-Chief of All Burmese Armed Forces
| No. | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) |
Term of office | Notes | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | |||||
| Head of the State; Supreme Commander-in-Chief of All Burmese Armed Forces | |||||||
| 1 |  |
Ba Maw (1893–1977) |
1 August 1943 | 19 August 1945 | 2 years, 18 days | The only civilian commander-in-chief of the military. The Head of the State was the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Burmese Armed Forces according to the Constitution of Burma, 1943. | [21][22] |
Supreme Commander-in-Chief of PBF
| No. | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) |
Term of office | Notes | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | |||||
| Supreme Commander-in-Chief | |||||||
| 1 |  |
Major General Aung San (1915–1947) |
27 March 1945 | 29 December 1945 | 277 days | Founder of modern Myanmar Army, leader of Thirty Comrades, father of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. | [11] |
Inspector General of the Burma Army
Existing positions named C-in-C and CS
- Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services
- Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services, Commander-in-Chief (Army)
- Commander-in-Chief (Navy)
- Commander-in-Chief (Air)
- Chief of the General Staff (Army, Navy and Air)
- Chief of Staff (Army)
- Chief of Staff (Navy)
- Chief of Staff (Air)
Notes
- Reconfirms the Commander-in-Chief Appointed by the Office of the Military Appointments General