Royal Burmese Armed Forces

Royal Armed Forces မြန်မာ့ဘုရင့်တပ်မတော် Tatmadaw
Flag of Kingdom of Burma
Active	849–1885
Country	Kingdom of Burma
Branch	Palace Guards Capital Defense Corps Artillery Corps Elephantry Corps Cavalry Corps Infantry Regiments Navy
Type	Army, Navy
Role	Military force
Size	70,000 men at its height
Engagements	Mongol invasions Forty Years' War Toungoo-Hanthawaddy War Burmese–Siamese wars Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769) Anglo-Burmese wars
Commanders
Notable commanders	Kyansittha, Minye Kyawswa, Bayinnaung, Alaungpaya, Maha Nawrahta, Maha Thiha Thura, Maha Bandula

The Royal Armed Forces (Burmese: တပ်မတော် [taʔmədɔ̀]) were the armed forces of the Burmese monarchy from the 9th to 19th centuries. It refers to the military forces of the Pagan Dynasty, the Ava Kingdom, the Toungoo Dynasty and the Konbaung Dynasty in chronological order. The army was one of the major armed forces of Southeast Asia until it was defeated by the British over a six-decade span in the 19th century.

The army was organised into a small standing army of a few thousand, which defended the capital and the palace, and a much larger conscript-based wartime army. Conscription was based on the ahmudan system, which required local chiefs to supply their predetermined quota of men from their jurisdiction on the basis of population in times of war. The wartime army also consisted of elephantry, cavalry, artillery and naval units.

Firearms, first introduced from China in the late 14th century, became integrated into strategy only gradually over many centuries. The first special musket and artillery units, equipped with Portuguese matchlocks and cannon, were formed in the 16th century. Outside the special firearm units, there was no formal training program for the regular conscripts, who were expected to have a basic knowledge of self-defense, and how to operate the musket on their own. As the technological gap between European powers widened in the 18th century, the army was dependent on Europeans' willingness to sell more sophisticated weaponry.