RAAP—041
MYANMAR 3D GUNS
After Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, anti-junta fighters with limited access to conventional weapons began turning to improvised and locally manufactured arms, including 3D-printed firearms. One of the most prominent designs in circulation is the FGC-9, a semiautomatic 9mm firearm that can be built largely from 3D-printed parts and simple, unregulated components. The weapon was originally released online by an anonymous designer known as “JStark,” with instructions meant for people living under strict gun-control regimes.
Units aligned with Myanmar’s resistance which includes the People’s Defense Force (PDF), have been documented producing and fielding FGC-9 style weapons in makeshift workshops and carrying them in live operations against junta forces. Video and photo evidence since 2021 shows these weapons in guerrilla use, including jungle engagements and training drills. Researchers have described this as one of the first known cases of 3D-printed firearms being deployed at scale in an active civil conflict.
Local variants have emerged, including an extended-barrel configuration sometimes referred to as the “Stingray,” essentially a lengthened FGC-9 pattern intended to improve accuracy and range. Myanmar resistance groups have claimed small-batch production of these rifles for both training and combat roles, framing them as a step toward reducing dependence on smuggled or captured weapons.
Outside Myanmar, the FGC-9 and its derivatives circulate in transnational 3D-printed gun communities that share design files, machining guides, and troubleshooting advice across encrypted channels and open platforms, including Reddit. Analysts note that contributors in these networks are often based in the United States and Europe, and that this same ecosystem has also supplied criminal groups and extremist actors. In Myanmar’s case, however, that technical pipeline has become a lifeline for an armed movement fighting a military regime with air power and heavy weapons.
Taken together, Myanmar’s adoption of 3D-printed firearms shows how insurgent groups can now tap into a global, open-source weapons culture. The effect is not to replace rifles and explosives captured from the army, but to supplement them and give fighters a reproducible, locally assembled weapon in a war where access to industrial arms is tightly controlled by the state.
Units aligned with Myanmar’s resistance which includes the People’s Defense Force (PDF), have been documented producing and fielding FGC-9 style weapons in makeshift workshops and carrying them in live operations against junta forces. Video and photo evidence since 2021 shows these weapons in guerrilla use, including jungle engagements and training drills. Researchers have described this as one of the first known cases of 3D-printed firearms being deployed at scale in an active civil conflict.
Local variants have emerged, including an extended-barrel configuration sometimes referred to as the “Stingray,” essentially a lengthened FGC-9 pattern intended to improve accuracy and range. Myanmar resistance groups have claimed small-batch production of these rifles for both training and combat roles, framing them as a step toward reducing dependence on smuggled or captured weapons.
Outside Myanmar, the FGC-9 and its derivatives circulate in transnational 3D-printed gun communities that share design files, machining guides, and troubleshooting advice across encrypted channels and open platforms, including Reddit. Analysts note that contributors in these networks are often based in the United States and Europe, and that this same ecosystem has also supplied criminal groups and extremist actors. In Myanmar’s case, however, that technical pipeline has become a lifeline for an armed movement fighting a military regime with air power and heavy weapons.
Taken together, Myanmar’s adoption of 3D-printed firearms shows how insurgent groups can now tap into a global, open-source weapons culture. The effect is not to replace rifles and explosives captured from the army, but to supplement them and give fighters a reproducible, locally assembled weapon in a war where access to industrial arms is tightly controlled by the state.