Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Last month the Times of India reported that 'India will order a 'large' number of the quite-expensive Javelin ATGM systems from the US.

'The deal for the man-portable, fire-and-forget Javelin ATGM systems will once again be a direct government-to-government one under the American foreign military sales (FMS) programme, without any global multi-vendor competition.

'While the exact number of Javelin systems India will induct is yet to be decided, it could well run into thousands. The Army, after all, has a shortfall of around 44,000 ATGMs of different types....'

In July the Raytheon Company announced that India is evaluating the Patriot ground-based anti-ballistic missile system for purchase and deployment and that the U.S. had provided New Delhi with 'classified' material on it recently. Sales of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor missiles to India are reported to be on Barack Obama's agenda during his November visit.

By acquiring them, India would join fellow Asia-Pacific nations Japan, South Korea and Taiwan as well as NATO members Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Greece and U.S. Middle East military clients Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Joseph Garrett, Raytheon vice president and deputy for Patriot programs, disclosed that 'A number of exchanges have taken place between the government of India and the US and information has been given to India at the classified level.'

Patriots were 'successfully used during both Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Patriot's manufacturer Raytheon has said.' Seven consecutive years of Yudh Abhyas war games aren't the only joint U.S.-Indian military exercises held each year of late. In fact they are full spectrum in their range.

Starting shortly after the end of the Cold War, Washington initiated joint Malabar naval exercises with India. Suspended after the latter's nuclear tests in 1998, they resumed in 2002 and have grown in scale over the years.

Malabar 2002 included standard maritime manoeuvres but also anti-submarine warfare exercises. The 2003 drills featured an American guided missile destroyer, a guided missile cruiser and a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine and two Indian guided missile frigates, a submarine and several aircraft which concentrated on anti-submarine warfare tactics.

2004 saw a continuation of anti-submarine drills and included a U.S. nuclear-powered fast attack submarine and anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft. The next year's war games featured a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft super carrier for the first time and included a 24-hour simulated 'war at sea' with the two nations' navies engaging in mock combat.

In 2006 an American expeditionary strike group (the USS Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group) consisting of over 6,500 U.S. Navy personnel, amphibious ships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines participated in the exercise for the first time. Also, with the inclusion of the Canadian navy the 2006 Malabar exercises expanded for the first time beyond the bilateral format of the preceding two years.

The next year was a watershed one in many respects. Malabar 2007 included 25 warships from five nations: In addition to the U.S. and India, participating countries were Australia, Japan and Singapore, at the time leading to suspicions of American plans to forge an Asian NATO.

The drills were held for the first time in the Bay of Bengal off India's eastern coast, which further raised Chinese concerns, and extended into the Andaman Sea near the strategic Strait of Malacca.
The U.S. supplied 13 warships including the USS Nimitz nuclear super carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, the USS Chicago nuclear submarine, two guided missile cruisers and six guided missile destroyers. Japan provided two destroyers, Singapore a frigate and Australia a frigate and a tanker.
Malabar 2008 returned to a bilateral context with the involvement of the USS Ronald Reagan Strike Group, a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine and a P-3 Orion anti-submarine plane.

4,000 personnel from three nations - the U.S., India and Japan - participated in last year's exercise which included anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, air defense and live-fire gunnery training drills.

Malabar 2010 was conducted in April with ships, submarines, aircraft and personnel from the U.S. Navy s Seventh Fleet, among which were a nuclear fast attack submarine, two guided missile destroyers, a guided missile cruiser, a guided missile frigate, Sea Hawk helicopters, anti-submarine aircraft and Navy SEALS.
The Pentagon hasn't been content to exercise its troops and weapons on India's soil and off its coasts. Starting in 2004 the U.S. has also led annual air combat manoeuvres called Cope India.
The first series of bilateral aerial warfare exercises tested U.S. state-of-the-art F-15 Eagle fighters against Russian-made MiG-21, MiG-27, MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-30 opposite numbers along with French-made Mirage 200 fighters. The U.S. warplanes were consistently bested by their MiG-21 and Su-30 rivals.

The Cope India manoeuvres, like comparable ones in Romania and elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the Red Flag air combat exercises in the U.S., provide the Pentagon an opportunity to engage and compete against advanced Russian military aircraft for use in real war scenarios in the future.

Cope India 2005 pitted American F-16 Fighting Falcons against India's most advanced, largely Russian-produced, fighters in - for the first time in joint U.S.-Indian air exercises - a combat environment controlled by airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft.

The next year over 250 U.S. airmen stationed throughout the Pacific region accompanied F-16 Fighting Falcons to India for Cope India 2006. The F-16s were deployed against the most advanced fighter in the Indian Air Force's arsenal, the Su-30 MKI (adapted from the Russian Su-30) as well as MiG-21, MiG-27, MiG-29 and Mirage 2000 fighters.

In 2008 an Indian Air Force contingent of eight Su-30 MKI fighters, two Russian-made in-flight refuellers, a Russian heavy lift transport aircraft and almost 250 airmen 'winged their way halfway across the globe to the deserts of Nevada,' to participate in an Exercise Red Flag, held three or four times a year in Nevada and Alaska and 'acknowledged to be the most advanced and professionally challenging fighter exercise conducted anywhere in the world.'

The exercise marked several precedents: It included the largest single deployment of the Indian Air Force outside India. It was the first time that the air forces of nations not in NATO or those of major non-NATO allies - India and South Korea - participated in Red Flag air combat manoeuvres. 'It was also the first time that the SU30 MKI, a frontline combat aircraft of Russian design, made its appearance in the American skies and that too in a multi-national congregation.'

India was elevated to the status of an American strategic military ally, on the level of a NATO partner, on June 28, 2005 when U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee signed the New Framework for the U.S.-India Defense Relationship, in effect a ten-year defense pact.

India has become the convergence point for the U.S.-led NATO bloc moving from the west into Central and South Asia and the expansion of an Asia-Pacific NATO growing from its Japan-Australia-South Korea-Taiwan nucleus to absorb the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mongolia, New Zealand and the five former Soviet Central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - are to varying degrees being integrated into the structure as well.

India is also intended as a central locus for the U.S. global interceptor missile grid based on land and sea and in the air and space, linking deployments in Eastern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, the South Caucasus and the Middle East to those in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and Alaska, including the latter's Aleutian Islands.

Moving the Asian nation into the Pentagon's column will not only affect the balance of forces in Asia but throughout the world.

Defence Services Parachute Championship 2010 was conducted at Uhana Air Force Base from 06th to 14th August for the first time in the history of para jumping among Defence Forces of Sri Lanka.

The Championship was conducted under three categories, Accuracy Landing Team for Men and Women, Accuracy Landing Individual and Formation Sky Diver.

Sri Lanka Army team winning a Gold medal in Accuracy Landing Team event and both Gold and Silver medals in Accuracy Landing Individual event, emerged as joint-champs with Sri Lanka Air Force.

This tri service championship organized by Sri Lanka Air Force, was conducted for the first time on an experimental basis.

Sri Lanka will revamp its outdated civil aviation law to cope with advances made over several decades and a new law will be brought to parliament quickly, information minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said.

'Civil aviation law is outdated. Since the law was brought 60 years ago the industry has moved by leaps and bounds,' the minister said.

'The act will be brought to parliament as early as possible as an urgent piece of legislation.' Sri Lanka's Air Navigation Act is 60 years old.

Sri Lanka is positioning itself to be an aviation hub.

Analysts say Sri Lanka could also earn revenues by expanding air traffic and navigation services to the Indian Ocean, which the country has not fully made use of.

The Ministry of Defence has issued a directive to the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) that the minimum qualification for recruitment of cadet pilots should be a pass in GCE (Advanced Level) as before and not GCE (OL). It has also ordered the cancellation of the latest intake of cadets -- an issue that generated a serious controversy.

The earlier requirement that the benchmark qualification should be GCE (AL) was lowered by a senior officer to accommodate one of his siblings. Using this process, the recruitment of another batch took place last month it was found that one of the applicants, medically disqualified, was included for final interviews on the orders of a top officer. That meant that he was qualified to fly aircraft after training. However, the interviews were cancelled.

On September 5, I revealed in these columns how the boss, already in the eye of a storm over acquiring property, is in the news again. The report said: 'This time, it is over selecting new fliers. One of the applicants, picked during the process, failed his medical test. Many were surprised when it transpired that someone above has overruled the medical findings and declared the applicant was fit enough...'

It turned out that the candidate was the son of the sister of a woman politician in the United National Paty (UNP).

If that controversy had ended, another had just begun. It is over the recruitment of an SLAF contingent to serve in Haiti. The Ministry of Defence has directed that priority be given to those who served in operational areas (meaning the battle areas in the north and east) and those who won gallantry medals. This is to ensure that troops who made great sacrifice are both rewarded and their contributions recognised.

Air Chief Roshan Gunatilleke, has now declared in a circular that all personnel serving in his personal security contingent and related units be considered as having served in 'operational areas.' That covers eight officers and 436 other ranks.

This is what a circular (SLAF/13/19AIR) sent out by the Air Secretariat of the SLAF has to say: 'In view of the nature of duties performed by the officers and other ranks posted to the Commander's security contingent and those who are engaged in ancillary roles at the Air House, the Commander has directed to consider their total period of services 'operational' for all purposes.'

Directors in charge of various branches have been ordered, 'to regularise the same in the personal documents as applicable.' The dates from which they commenced their tour of duty in the security contingent and Air House are contained in an annexure in the circular.

Two Royal Thai Naval ships, HTMS Similan and HTMS Pattani , with Commander, Frigate Squadron 2 of the Royal Thai Fleet, Rear Admiral Chaiyot Sundaranaga on board, arrived at the Port of Colombo yesterday (19th September 2010). The ships were ceremonially welcomed by the Sri Lanka Navy on their arrival. A special programme has been arranged by the Sri Lanka Navy to enhance the friendly relations between the two Navies during the ships stay in Sri Lanka.

The two Royal Thai Naval ships belong to the Royal Thai Navy Counter Piracy Task Group (RTNCPTG) and are en route to the Gulf of Aden with two Naval Special Warfare units on an anti-piracy mission headed by Rear Admiral Chaiyot Sundaranaga. The ships are in Sri Lanka for logistics support prior to joining the international anti-piracy operation being carried out jointly by maritime task forces from 29 countries off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden.

HTMS Similan, an Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessel, is 171.45 meters in length and has a displacement of 22,000 tons. The ship carries a complement of 230 Naval personnel and is commanded by Captain Poollarp Tattathongkom.

HTMS Pattani, an Offshore Patrol Vessel, is 94.5 meters in length and has a displacement of 1635 tons. The ship carries a complement of 126 Naval personnel and is commanded by Commander Sathip Chitnawa.

Frigate Squadron-2 and Royal Thai Fleet and Counter-Piracy Mission Commander Rear Admiral Chaiyot Sundaranaga called on Sri Lanka Navy Commander Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe at the Naval Headquarters in Colombo on September 21. He was accompanied by Ambassador of Thailand in Sri Lanka Thinakorn Kanasuta, HTMS Similan Commanding Officer Captain Poollarp Tattathongkom and HTMS Pattani Commanding Officer Commander Sathip Chitnawa.

They held brief discussions on matters of mutual interest and bilateral relations. Thereafter, they exchanged mementos as a gesture of goodwill.

Two Royal Thai Naval ships, HTMS Similan and HTMS Pattani, belonging to the Royal Thai Navy Counter Piracy Task Group (RTNCPTG), arrived at the Port of Colombo on September 19.

They are en route to the Gulf of Aden with two Naval Special Warfare units on a counter-piracy mission headed by Rear Admiral Chaiyot Sundaranaga.