The Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services () is the second-highest military appointment in the Tatmadaw, the unified armed forces of Myanmar, also known in English as the "Defence Services".The Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2008) and its official English translation; Bilingual; source: Constitutional Tribunal of the Union၁၉၅၉ခုနှစ်၊ တပ်မတော်အက်ဥပဒေ [The Defence Services Act, 1959] (Bilingual; English and Burmese)၁၉၅၉ ခုနှစ်၊ တပ်မတော်အက်ဥပဒေကို ပြင်ဆင်သည့် ဥပဒေ [The Law Amending the Defence Services Act, 1959]; in Burmese and English After the unification of Myanmar's Army, Navy, and Air Force in 1955, the Tatmadaw used the Chief of Staff system, with the three branches of the armed forces led by the Vice Chief of Staff (Army), Vice Chief of Staff (Navy), and Vice Chief of Staff (Air).၁၉၅၉ခုနှစ်၊ တပ်မတော်နည်းဥပဒေများ [The Defence Services Rules, 1959] (Bilingual; English and Burmese) In 1989, this was reorganized into the current system, under which each branch is led by its own Commander-in-Chief.၁၉၅၉ ခုနှစ်၊ တပ်မတော်နည်းဥပဒေများကို ပြင်ဆင်သည့် နည်းဥပဒေများ [The Rules Amending the Defence Services Rules, 1959]; in Burmese and EnglishSelth, Andrew (2002): Burma's Armed Forces: Power Without Glory, Eastbridge. Since then, except in the special case of a 26-day period in 2026, the positions of the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services and Commander-in-Chief (Army) have been traditionally combined and only one officer is appointed at a time.
List of DGOC/ VCS/ DC-in-CDS (Dates in italics indicate de facto continuation of office) Portrait Name Term of office Notes Took office Left office Time in office Deputy General Officer Commanding, Burma Army * Colonel Smith Dun 1 May 1947 4 January 1948 His appointment as DGOC is recorded in the military's official history but he is not acknowledged as the first person in the official list of VCS/DC-in-CDS,C-in-C(Army). Later became the first military chief of independent Burma as GOC * Brigadier General Saw Kyar Doe 14 April 1948 30 July 1949 1 year and 107 days Ethnic Karen Officer, then named "Deputy General Officer Commanding". Saw Kyar Doe moved to the post of Chief of Operation but forced to retire due to civil war with Karen Listed as the first VCS/C-in-CDS,C-in-C(Army) in the official list even though he had retired before 1955 * Major General Ne Win 1 August 1948 1 February 1949 Listed in the official list of VCS/DC-in-CDS,C-in-C(Army) even though his term of office was before 1955. Promoted to GOC in 1949; subsequently became the first Chief of Staff of the unified Tatmadaw, the Defence Services, in 1955 Vice Chief of Staff, Defence Services (Army) 28 September 1955 10 May 1989 The three Vice Chiefs of Staff from Army, Navy and Air branches enjoyed equal status as deputies to the Chief of Staff, Defence Services Vice Chief of Staff, Defence Services (Navy) Vice Chief of Staff, Defence Services (Air) Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services1General Than Shwe10 May 1989 23 April 1992 Previously titled Vice Chief of Staff (Army). Later promoted to the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services 2 Vice-Senior General Maung Aye 24 April 1992 30 March 2011 3 Vice-Senior General Soe Win 30 March 2011 30 March 2026 transferred the CinC(Army) position to Ye Win Oo on 4 March 2026; remained as DCinCDS after that 4 General Kyaw Swar Lin 30 March 2011 Incumbent
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) Chief of the General Staff (Army, Navy and Air) Commander-in-Chief (Navy) Commander-in-Chief (Air) 7. Chief of Staff (Army) Chief of Staff (Navy) Chief of Staff (Air)
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