KAMALIKA PIERIS
PART
13 of this series is on the Sri Lanka
armed forces.
The Sri Lanka army was established under the Army Act No. 17 of 1949.
Brigadier James Sinclair, Earl of Caithness was first Commander of the Army. The army started with an artillery regiment, an engineer
squadron, an infantry battalion, a medical unit, and a service corps company. Members of the earlier Ceylon
Defence Force, (1910- 1949) formed the nucleus of the army. The Ceylon Defence
Force was an experienced force. It had
fought in the two World Wars alongside British. The fledgling Sri Lanka
army therefore consisted of experienced persons, from the beginning. It was not
an army composed of raw recruits, new to warfare.
Ceylon had
entered into a Defence Agreement with Britain in 1947. This Defence agreement
had provisions for training the new army.
Training in Ceylon was provided by British Army Training Team (BATT). However, senior
officers went to the British Army Staff College, Camberley
and to the British Army of the Rhine
to gain field experience.
From 1949 officers were sent for training to Sandhurst. They were
selected through competitive examination and interview. After the exam, we had
a preliminary interview with senior officers of the Army, chaired by the Chief
of Staff. The final interview was at the Ministry of Defence, said former Commander
Gerry de Silva.
In the 1950s and 1960s Sri Lanka was very proud of the fact that
it officers were ‘Sandhurst trained.’ The Sandhurst training was for leading
and commanding troops. Sandhurst trained
80 Ceylonese officers between 1949 and
1968. ‘I think Sandhurst training
helped greatly in the formative years of the Sri Lanka Army. We didn’t have an
officer core as such till the Sandhurst cadets returned,’ said Gerry de Silva.
We maintained British traditions right along said Gerry de Silva in an interview. Those trained at
Sandhurst introduced to the Sri Lankan Army the British traditions they had
learnt in Sandhurst, and followed them. The ranks, training methods such as the
drill system and the weapons training were all on the Sandhurst or the British
model.
The army
commanders who received this training included Commanders
Denis Perera, and Gerry de Silva. Perera also attended the Royal School of Military Engineering and British Army‘s
Staff College, Camberley. Lt Gen Denzil Kobbekaduwa was trained
entirely in Britain. In addition to
Sandhurst, he trained at the Royal College of Defence Studies for Senior
Officers Thereafter, officers were sent for training to National Defence College,
India. Commanders Tissa Weeratunga, Hamilton Wanasinghe and Sri Lal
Weerasooriya trained in India.
In the 1980s Sri Lanka developed its own training institutes. There was the Kotelawala Defence University ( 1981), Defence
Services Command and Staff College at Batalanda, Makola
(1997) for Junior field officers and Sri Lanka
Military Academy
,Diyatalawa for basic officer training.
There is also Army Training School in Maduru Oya, Infantry
Training Centre in
Minneriya, Combat Training School in Ampara and Non-commissioned Officers Training
School at Kala Oya. Specialized training was given at Marksman Sniper
Training School ,Armoured Corps Training Centre, School of Artillery, Sri Lanka
School of Military Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineers, School of
Signals, Commando Regiment Training School, Special Forces Training School,
Engineer Service School, Sri Lanka Army Service Corps school, Sri Lanka Army
Ordnance School, Sri Lanka Electrical And Mechanical Engineers School
The 1980s saw a massive expiation of the army from 15,000 personal
to over 30,000 and more. New regiments were raised, while others were expanded
with new battalions. New weapons and equipment were introduced as the war
shifted from counter-insurgency to conventional warfare tactics, with multi battalion, brigade and division scale operations. New regiments were formed which included the Commando Regiment, Special Forces Regiment, Mechanized Infantry Regiment, Gajaba
Regiment, Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment, Military Intelligence Corps, Sri Lanka Army Women’s Corps,
In late 1987, the army had a total estimated strength of up to
40,000 troops, about evenly divided between regular army personnel and
reservists on active duty. The approximately 20,000 regular army troops
represented a significant increase over the 1983 strength of only 12,000.
Aggressive recruitment campaigns following the 1983 riots raised this number to
16,000 by early 1985. By 1990 the army had expanded to over 90,000 personnel
and by 2007, it had expanded to over 120,000.
In 2010, the Army had approximately 200,000 regular personnel,
between 20,000–40,000 reserve personnel and 18,000 National Guardsmen[ and comprises 13 operational divisions, one air-mobile brigade, one commando brigade, one special
forces brigade, one
independent armored brigade, three mechanized infantry brigades and over 40 infantry brigades.
In the 1980s, the army expanded its range of weapons from the
original stock of World
War II-era British Lee–Enfield rifles, Sten Submachine guns, Vickers machine guns, Bren
machine guns, 6-inch coastal guns, Daimler Armoured Cars, Bren Gun
Carriers,[66] 40 mm
anti-aircraft guns, 3.7-inch heavy anti-aircraft guns and 4.2-inch heavy mortars as well as post war Alvis
Saladins, Alvis Saracen, Ferrets and Shorland
S55s. New sources
of weaponry in the mid-to-late 1970s included the Soviet
Union, Yugoslavia, and China – countries with which the leftist Bandaranaike government had close ties.
To meet the threat posed by predominantly the LTTE, Army
purchasemodern military hardware including 50-caliber heavy
machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, Night Vision Devices, 106 mm recoilless rifles, 60 mm and 81 mm mortars, 40 mm grenade
launchers and some sniper rifles.
Refurbished armored personnel carriers
were added to the ‘A’ vehicle fleet of the 1st Reconnaissance Regiment, Sri Lanka Armoured Corps.
These APCs enabled the Armoured Corps to have their own assault troops to
provide close contact protection to their Alvis Saladin and
Ferret
Scout Cars which were vulnerable to anti-tank
weapons.
The capability of the Sri Lanka
Artillery was enhanced with the
introduction of Ordnance QF
25 pounders.[
Chinese-made 122 mm, 130 mm and 152 mm howitzers were introduced
to the Sri Lankan Army in 1995 and 1998 whilst 122 mm Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers
(MBRL), were first used in 2000 by the Sri Lanka Army. Though the weapons were
obsolete at the time of purchase, security forces found them to be successful
in combat.
LTTE has set land mines weighed
approximately 50 – 100 kg, against which no armoured vehicle that the SLA
possessed was able to withstand the blast effect. Armscor Buffels – South
African armoured personnel carriers
constructed on a Unimog
chassis – were imported in quantity to withstand land mines. By 1987 Sri
Lanka’s indigenous Unicorn APC had
been engineered from the Buffel, followed by the improved Unibuffel
class. Both the Unicorn and the Unibuffel are assembled by the Sri Lanka Electrical & Mechanical Engineers.
The Sri Lankan Navy was established on 9 December
1950 when the Navy Act was passed for the formation of the Royal Ceylon Navy. Its nucleus was Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force established,
in 1937.This Volunteer Force was absorbed into Britain’s Royal Navy as the Ceylon Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during World War II. The
first warship was HMCyS Vijaya. Training was given at
Diyatalawa and Trincomalee. From 1967
senior officers were trained at Royal Naval College Dartmouth. Recent
navy commanders were also trained there.
Sri Lanka Air Force was founded in 1951 as the Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) with the assistance of Britain’s
Royal
Air Force (RAF). Flight training was given at RAF Station Negombo, and RAF airfield at Katunayake, In addition, a number of cadet
officers received flight training at the Royal Air Force College in Cranwell, UK . When Sri Lanka took over the British air
and naval bases in 1956, SLAF took over the former RAF stations, Katunayake
and China Bay.
These became SLAF operational stations while ancillary functions were carried
out at Diyatalawa
and Ekala.
In 1967, a Flight Training School was
established at China Bay.
Senior officers
of the ranks of Squadron Leader
and Wing Commander are given
advanced training at the Defence Services Command and Staff College
(DSCSC) at Batalanda, Makola. This was established
in 1997. Others are trained at SLAF Junior Command & Staff
College at China Bay
Basic officer training is carried out at the Air Force Academy at Bay. The academy offers a two-year program of basic
flight training and a variety of specialized courses.
Initial Ground Combat Training is given at Diyatalawa.
Diyatalawa also conducts advanced training for SLAF
regiment officer cadets.
Following
training at SLAF Diyatalawa, general duties (pilot) branch officer cadets are
sent to the Air Force Academy for flight training, and airmen and airwomen are
sent to Advanced and Specialized Trade Training School for specialized training
in different trades. Air traffic controllers receive
schooling at special facilities in Colombo. Approximately
twenty-five officers a year receive advanced training abroad, most commonly in
Britain, Indian Air Force
and, in recent years, at the United States Air Force Academy.
In the 1950s the army was preoccupied with the task of building
itself and training its personnel. It was not called on to defend the country.
The army first came to public
attention with the failed military coup d’état of 1962.
A group of Christian officers in the military and police planned to topple the
government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike during the night of 27 January 1962, organized by Colonel F. C. de
Saram (Deputy
Commandant, Ceylon Volunteer Force), Colonel Maurice
De Mel,
(Commandant, Ceylon Volunteer Force), Rear
Admiral Royce de Mel (former Captain of the Royal Ceylon Navy), C.C.
Dissanayake (DIG, Range I), Sydney
de Zoysa (retired
DIG) and Douglas
Liyanage (Deputy
Director of Land Development), it was to take place in the night of 27 January
1962, but was called off as the government gained information in the afternoon
and initiated arrests of the suspected coup leaders.[1] However, key leaders were arrested before the coup was carried
out. Thereafter, the government made
sure that command structure of the army did not consist of Christians alone.
The army played a role in the 1971 insurrection and the need
for national security was realized. In 1984, Israeli security personnel (reportedly from Shin Bet, the Israeli counterespionage and internal security organization) trained army officers in counterinsurgency techniques.
The first
time the Sri Lanka army was asked to fight for the security of the country, was
in 1987, when the Eelam wars started in
the north. At the same time, there was a second insurgency by the
CIA funded JVP, in the south, forcing the army to deploy its forces in the south of the island and to fight on two
fronts between 1987 and 1989. Note: the main
source for the military data in this essay is Wikipedia. (Continued)
