Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

The Ministry of Aviation has been entrusted with the task of managing the Palali domestic airport.

The new Minister of Aviation Priyankara Jayaratne said a discussion in this regard was held between top officials of the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Aviation.

'We will manage the airport while facilitating the interests of the Air Force,' he said.

Jayaratne said they will consider the Palali airport on a commercial basis and introduce infrastructure that will be beneficial for passengers. He said they will also talk with other stakeholders such as the Ministry of Tourism to convert this airport into a comprehensive commercial airport.

The Minister said they would rapidly develop the Ratmalana airport to make it an international airport where charter aircraft and mini aircraft could land. 'We would consider re-introducing a Customs and duty free facility to cater to international traffic,' he said.

Commenting on SriLankan Airlines, Jayaratne said that under the directive of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, they are planning to purchase six new aircraft next year.

'Our aim is to invade the European market,' he said.

In addition, this will also strengthen the SriLankan transit market and help make the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) a regional hub.'

The BIA would also get additional infrastructure including a new airport hotel, a domestic terminal and a railway station inside the airport.

The Minister also disclosed that SriLankan airlines has already obtained one air taxi and the second one would be brought down early next year.

'We will use this 17-seater aircraft to fly passengers to Jaffna, Trincomalee, Puttalam, Koggala, Victoria, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Hambantota and other destinations when their services are required,' he said.

The service would be operational from January.

An under graduate degree program for Pilots will be introduced by the Ministry of Aviation together with the Ministry of Higher Education, soon.

The Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne said he would hold a discussion with Minister of Higher Education, S. B. Dissanayake in this regard.

This decision was taken as we see an increased demand for Pilots both locally and internationally in the future, he added.

The Model Aircraft Unit of the Air Force had been set up to meet the requirement of souvenirs for the Air Force Museum in Ratmalana, an airbase in a suburb just south of Colombo.

Warrant Officer N P S Pathirana and his team have been able to turn out models of all the aircraft in the Sri Lanka Air Force inventory including models of Kfirs and MiG 27s jets that played a key role in destroying Tamil Tiger ground assets and defences.

They also turn out models of vintage world war aircraft like the De Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth, and the Chipmunk.

Among the other scale models of aircraft that are being made are the C130 or Hercules, Y12, AN32, BELL 212, BELL 412, K8, and F7s.

Sri Lanka is keeping its air force up to strength by having maintenance personnel spend part of their time building scale models of aircraft, which are then sold for $40 and up. It's either this, or lose many scarce maintenance personnel. All this can be blamed on an outbreak of peace.

The Sri Lankan civil war ended in early 2009, and the country found itself with a large air force. Over a hundred new aircraft had been bought in the previous decade, and thousands of maintenance and support personnel were recruited to keep them flying. During the last few years of the war, warplanes were in the air as much as possible, and it was all possible because the air force had sufficient skilled, and hard working, technicians and mechanics to perform needed maintenance. But with peace came the need to cut back on military spending, which would bankrupt the country if it continued at wartime rates (consuming 29 percent of GDP).

For the air force, huge savings could be achieved by simply not flying as much. Aircraft are very expensive to keep in the air, mainly because of the high price of fuel and spare parts. A small percentage of the cost is personnel, as it takes up to 30 hours (for older, and more complex aircraft) of maintenance per flight hour. In the months after the war ended, the air force maintenance personnel went from working over 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to having trouble finding enough useful to do for 40 hours a week. The air force stopped recruiting some types of maintenance personnel, and sought ways to hang on to key mechanics and technicians. Than it was discovered that some of the technical personnel built these aircraft models as a hobby. The skills needed to build these aircraft replicas were easy to pick up for men who knew how to repair and upgrade aircraft.

So one helicopter squadron has set up a workshop to build aircraft models. The income keeps many of the underemployed maintenance personnel in uniform. There is still some aircraft maintenance work, but not enough to keep the squadron technicians and mechanics employed full time.

Other squadrons have sought outside work doing aircraft maintenance, or anything similar. Such use of military personnel for outside work is nothing unique to Sri Lanka, or the 21st century. Professional armies have long been used for civilian projects some of the time, in order to make it possible to keep more troops on the payroll.

Indian Defence Secretary Mr. Pradeep Kumar paid an official visit to his Sri Lankan counterpart Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa today evening (27 Dec).

Mr. Pradeep Kumar arrived in Sri Lanka for three day official visit. During his visit he will hold discussions with key defence officials to strengthen bilateral defence ties with post-war Sri Lanka.

Both Secretaries exchanged plaques to mark the occasion.

Later Indian delegation headed by the Defence Secretary had a conference with key defence officials including Chief of the Defence Staff and Commander of the Air Force Air Chief Marshal Roshan Gunathilaka, Commander of the Army Lt. Gen Jagath Jayasooriya and Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasingha.

The Indian delegation comprise with Smitha Nagaraj Joint Secretary (PIC), MOD, Shri TS Tirumurti Joint Secretary (BSM), MEA, Maj. Gen. Sumer Singh ADG MO(A), IHQ MOD (Army), Radm A Chawla ACNS (FCI) IHQ MOD (Navy), AVM BS Dhanoa ACAS (INT), Air Headquarters, DIG KR Suresh Director (OPS) CG HQ.

Senior Additional Secretaries of the Ministry, Military Liaisons Officer and Chef of National Intelligence also participated in the conference.

The Defence Secretary's visit will also coincide with the first annual defence dialogue between the two countries.

The decision to institute a mechanism of an annual defence dialogue was agreed upon during the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in June.

As a result of the meeting a programme has been launched to improve defence relations to benefit both countries.

During his visit, the Indian official will also pay homage to the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) troops killed by the Tamil Tiger rebels during Sri Lanka's bloody war.

Kumar is to continue his tour until December 30, Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry sources said.

Sri Lankan and Indian navies will hold a joint naval exercise next year as a measure to boost defence cooperation between the two nations.

The decision to hold a joint naval drill was taken during a meeting held Monday between the visiting Indian Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and his Sri Lankan counterpart Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The Indian official who arrived in the country this afternoon for a three-day official visit with his delegation met key defence officials of Sri Lanka including Chief of the Defence Staff and Commander of the Air Force Air Chief Marshal Roshan Gunathilaka, Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasooriya and Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe this evening.

As a result of the discussions it has been decided that the Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Naik, will visit Sri Lanka next month.

The Indian delegation comprised senior officers of the three armed services, the Coast Guard, and the ministries of defence and external affairs.

Indian media reports said that security issues common to both sides including the security and safety of sea lanes of communication have been discussed at today's meeting and these common issues will form the basis for bilateral exchanges.

The two sides have also discussed the major ongoing projects, including reactivation of airfields in the war-ravaged areas of Sri Lanka.

The Indian defence secretary has also called on the External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris and he is expected to President Mahinda Rajapaksa tomorrow.

Indian Defence Secretary informed President Rajapaksa that India will offer 1,400 training placements for the Sri Lankan security service personnel.

During the discussions, India and Sri Lanka have agreed to commence staff-level talks between the navies and armies of the two countries and conduct a joint naval exercise between the two navies in 2011.

The two sides also have reviewed major ongoing projects, including reactivation of Palaly airport as a regional civil aviation hub and of Kankasanthurai harbour for regional and domestic trade and commerce.

Continuing the tradition of high-level exchanges, the Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Force would pay a visit to Sri Lanka in January 2011, the Indian High Commission informed.

On behalf of the Indian Air Force Pradeep Kumar accepted an invitation to participate in the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Sri Lankan Air Force next year.

The visiting official is scheduled to pay a visit to the Sri Lanka Air Force Base in Katunayake before his departure for India on Wednesday (29).

During his visit, Kumar has also paid homage to the Indian Peace Keeping Force by laying a wreath at the IPKF memorial. He also visited the Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura on Tuesday.

Secretary to the Ministry of Ports and Aviation Ranjith de Silva said, among those airports ranks Palaly, Trincomalee, Ampara and Ratmalana.

He said, the commercialization of the above Airports will be carried out under the basis of public private partnerships.

According to De Silva, already a private party has forwarded a proposal showing willingness to develop Ratmalana airport into a commercial airport.

The Government expect investments to come into develop runaways and terminals along with other facilities in the above airports.

Once the Domestic Airports are commercialized, air travelers to Sri Lanka can directly purchase a ticket to the above airports from any location in the world.

Citing an example De Silva said, A passenger boarding in from Heathrow airport can directly purchase a ticket to the Palaly airport

He will have to get down from BIA and get into a domestic flight flying to Palaly , added the Aviation Ministry Secretary.

The Maldivian Coastguard along with Sri Lankan Navy is making arrangements to join hands in a bid to eradicate piracy, drug trafficking and human smuggling that has plagued the Indian Ocean region.

The Sri Lanka Navy Spokesman Captain Athula Senarath told Haveeru Daily that the move for both the Sri Lanka Navy and the Maldivian Coastguard to join hands in strengthening the security in the region comes in the light of the recently concluded naval symposium held in Colombo.

Sri Lanka and Maldives has upheld a steady relationship in terms of maintaining security in the region. As one of our main allies during the war against terrorism and as a close neighbour we are making plans to work closely with the Maldivian Coastguard, he said.

We hope to conduct joint naval exercises with the Maldivian Coastguard and plans are underway to share naval intelligence which would benefit both countries. Sri Lanka faces issues such as drug trafficking, piracy and human smuggling which are common problems we share with Maldives. In order to combat these problems we have to work together, he said.

At the recently-concluded naval symposium held in Colombo, which was followed by the Sri Lanka Navy s Diamond Jubilee celebration these matters were discussed with the Navy Commanders of the SAARC region. Sri Lanka Navy is planning a strategy to uphold maritime security in the region by working closely with its neighboring countries, he said.

Sri Lanka s Navy Commander Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe had discussed matters related to maritime security with the visiting Commandant of the Maldives Coastguard, Brigadier General Zakariyya Mansoor who was a guest for the Sri Lanka Navy s Diamond Jubilee Celebration held in Colombo on December 08.