Rebels launch FPV drone attack on Myanmar jets

Anti-junta fighters launched a wave of FPV drones at Myanmar’s Tada-U Air Base on September 10, 2026, and video posted online shows one striking the nose of a Yak-130 jet, according to resistance sources.

Myanmar’s military government said the drones were all intercepted before causing any damage.

Journalist Thomas van Linge shared footage on X on September 10 showing an FPV drone hitting the Yak-130’s nose section, which houses part of the aircraft’s onboard electronics and flight controls. Resistance sources said the drones damaged four jets at the base in total, located in Tada-U township roughly 35 km (22 miles) south of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city.

State-run Myanmar Radio and Television gave a different account, reported by Xinhua. It said security forces detected six FPV “suicide drones” targeting Tada-U’s airfield and surrounding areas, intercepted all of them using counter-drone measures, and safely disposed of the explosives they carried. The report said no one was hurt and no aircraft or runways were damaged.

One fact both sides do not dispute: Mandalay International Airport, which shares infrastructure with the air base, closed for two days starting September 11. Myanmar Airways International and Mingalar Airline canceled flights into and out of the airport as a result.

The Yak-130 is a Russian-made, twin-seat jet built by the Yakovlev Design Bureau as a trainer, though Myanmar’s military has also flown it in ground-attack missions. Myanmar Witness, a London-based group that documents rights abuses in the country, reported in 2022 that it had verified Yak-130s firing unguided rockets and cannon rounds in populated civilian areas.

Thursday’s attack extends a pattern of resistance forces targeting Myanmar’s air power with drones since the military’s 2021 coup. The Kachin Independence Army downed a military Mi-17 transport helicopter with a drone near Shwegu in May 2025. In February 2026, an FPV drone destroyed a radar station at Nant Paung Air Base, and a separate suicide drone struck a Myanmar National Airlines ATR-72 as it prepared for takeoff at Myitkyina Airport.

How much damage the Yak-130s suffered at Tada-U remains unresolved. Resistance groups and Myanmar’s military have given conflicting accounts, and neither side has released footage or evidence that independently confirms the extent of the damage.