In a cave in eastern Myanmar, a young engineer who goes by the nom de guerre “3D” is building weapons to fight against a brutal military dictatorship.
and we needed them fast,” 3D says, sitting beneath the stalactites in a dimly lit cave, somewhere deep in the jungle in eastern Myanmar. The space reverberates with the hum of 3D printers, the devices that gave 3D his nom de guerre. A network engineer, 3D comes across as controlled and cautious, but from time to time, mostly when he’s speaking about his printers, a playful grin appears on his face. He spoke on condition that WIRED would not reveal his real name or show his face.
Myanmar’s borderlands have been plagued by civil conflicts since the end of World War II. Rebel groups, often delineated along ethnic lines, have sought autonomy from a state that was stitched together by the British Empire, and which unified distinct ancient kingdoms. The civil war escalated dramatically after the military seized power in February 2021, reversing years of tentative democratic progress.
3D joined the peaceful protests in the eastern town of Loikaw in the aftermath of the coup and witnessed the bloody response. “They fired with live ammunition at the protesters and killed many,” he says. After he saw that, 3D decided to join the revolution. He enrolled in an armed insurgent group that consisted of civilian volunteers like himself, named the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force . What he found was a resistance movement that was massively outgunned.
Today, 3D’s printers are at the heart of the rebel group’s in-house weapons program, producing drones, stabilizers for mortars, and other munitions to support the pro-democracy fighters. These are tools that have become closely associated with Ukraine’s scrambled, open sourced defense against Russia’s invasion, but, as 3D’s work on Myanmar’s front lines shows, the bootstrapping of warfare has become a global phenomenon.
“Without 3D printing, someone can manufacture a very high-quality weapon,” Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, assistant professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada, says. “But that does require a great deal of skill. You need to be a competent metal worker, and that takes a long time. With a 3D-printed firearm, it doesn’t take very long to go from no skill to [creating] something lethal. That’s how things are changing, the lethality and the ease of it.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Evil Genius Sues Netflix Over Canceled Rebel Moon TTRPGZack Snyder’s rejected Star Wars film was supposed to have a massive TTRPG released ahead of its premiere.
Read more »
Netflix Sued Over Canceled Game Deal for Zack Snyder’s ‘Rebel Moon’ MoviesNetflix has been sued for breach of contract by a company that was creating a game based on Zack Synder's 'Rebel Moon' sci-fi films.
Read more »
Evil Games Files Lawsuit Against Netflix Over 'Rebel Moon' TTRPGEvil Games filed a lawsuit against the streamer for breach of contract.
Read more »
Netflix Sued Over Cancelled Rebel Moon TTRPGEvil Genius Games filed a lawsuit against Netflix over a cancelled Rebel Moon game project.
Read more »
Netflix Sued by Evil Genius Games Over Canceled Rebel Moon GameTabletop role-playing game publisher Evil Genius Games has sued Netflix over a game based on the upcoming Zack Snyder movie Rebel Moon.
Read more »
Rebel’s Edge -Analyzing Market News- $CHS, $WOR, $JBL, and Detroit v Green BayJon and Pete Najarian join forces to discuss and debate their favorite topics, including the hottest stock-specific news and sports! Today: $CHS, $WOR, $JBL, and Detroit v Green Bay
Read more »