Dilrook Kannangara

There are a number of wars raging g around the world and a few more are on the planning stage. Drone warfare dominates every one of them. Among drones, the king is inevitably the mighty Shaheed drone. Shaheed and its copies in many countries, including its Russian, American, Chinese, Indian, Israeli, Turkish, etc. variants are highly effective due to low cost, simplicity, high impact, versatility, short time it takes to launch and hit targets and range. Why waste manned aircraft and artillery when a cheap but sizable enough drone can do the job at a fraction of the cost and with deadly precision. Sri Lanka must also clone the successful Shaheed-136 drone, customize it to specific needs and manufacture it locally in sufficient numbers. Peace time is the best opportunity to modernize the military and upgrade national security.

The purpose of having a strong miliary is not to wage war but to deter and prevent war. A strong and well-equipped military prevents war. A weak military invites trouble. Singapore for instance allocates 3.5% of the economy (GDP) to defense against the world average of around 2.5% of the GDP. Sri Lanka must invest 2.5% of the GDP in defense annually and at least 10% of the defense budget should go into equipment. Until Tamil terrorists struck in 1978 bombing a passenger plane in Ratmalana (which was an act of war and terrorism by international law), Sri Lanka was not ready for war. Only a very small percentage of its economy was allocated to defense that shocked Lee Kwan Yeu in the 1970s. Sri Lanka gradually increased it to match world average which helped bring about peace.

Sri Lanka faces a significant threat from drones launched by internal terrorist groups. Drones can disable its ports, particularly the Colombo port, oil storage facilities, key economic centres, transport nodes, telecommunications infrastructure and diesel and coal powerplants. This is due to the presence of massive populations that politically supported various terrorist groups in the past living close to these locations. Any medium to large scale attack on them can bring the nation to its knees.

In order to counter these, Sri Lanka needs counter drone weapons but these are highly inaccurate and expensive. Their success rate is very low and range is much shorter than attack drones. Bringing them down is also dangerous. Battling against attack drones is a battle that is bound to end in defeat for the defender. Instead, Sri Lanka must have its own attack drones that can be used to attack, punish and retaliate, thereby deter, aggressors. All aggressors have a soft underbelly of concerns. All aggressors live in a society that put pressure on them when faced with punishing conditions. In addition to attack drones, Sri Lanka also needs plenty of spy drones that can observe large extents of land, air and sea space in vulnerable areas for extended periods of time. Terror groups do not have effective anti-drone capabilities as they are not very effective, bulky and very expensive. Another advantage of attack drones is that non-state actors can be tasked to use them against suspected terror cells which avoids war crimes issues. Linking the political and military hierarchy to specific drones that actually committed alleged war crimes is not just difficult but impossible. AI-driven drones make waters even muddier. Due to the high degree of hostility between UN’s permanent five, there is not likely to be any agreement in this aspect of the international law. Military camps have been withdrawn in large numbers since winning the war in 2009 which puts national security at risk. However, this deficit can be easily overcome by the use of attack drones.

Hoping, praying and chanting for peace never brought about peace to the island. If they did, Sri Lanka would not be celebrating its great kings and achievements. Retaining the ability, upgrading it and having the means and courage to use military might to ensure national security matter most. Tried and tested, low-cost and versatile attack drones have a tremendous role to play in keeping Sri Lanka safe and making it too costly for those who wishes to attack it.