{"id":97860,"date":"2020-01-17T18:07:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T01:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97860"},"modified":"2020-01-17T18:07:25","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T01:07:25","slug":"the-sri-lanka-air-force-possesses-extensive-and-unique-experience-in-combating-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/17\/the-sri-lanka-air-force-possesses-extensive-and-unique-experience-in-combating-terrorism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sri Lanka Air Force possesses extensive and unique experience in combating terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEDIA RELEASE-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

(Translation of the text\nof the speech delivered by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on the occasion of\nthe Commissioning of officers and the award of \nFlying Brevets by the Sri Lanka Air Force on 17 January 2020)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venerable members of the Maha Sangha,\nclergymen of other faiths, Hon. State Minister for Defence, Hon. Ministers,\nParliamentarians, Secretary of Defence, Chief of Defence Staff, Commander of\nthe Air Force, members of the Armed Forces, parents and distinguished guests, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new group of young officers will be\njoining the Sri Lanka Air Force on this day. Among those who will be commissioned\nas officers of the Air Force today will be who have completed their training as\nofficer cadets, those who have completed their courses at the Kotelawala\nDefence University, and women officer cadets who have completed their training.\nOfficers who have completed their flight training will also be awarded\ntheir  Flying Brevets on this occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These young officers will be joining\nan Air Force with a proud history. All those present here will remember the\n19th of May 2009, the day the war against LTTE terrorism ended. The Air Force\nplayed a major role in achieving that victory. This is the air wing of the\nmilitary machine that defeated the LTTE which had long been considered to be\nundefeatable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any battlefield, enemy positions\nare bombed from the air before the ground forces move in. This is to minimise\nthe resistance that ground troops may encounter. The artillery units of the\nground forces also contribute to this, but the role of the Air Force is\ncrucial. During the Vanni operations, the LTTE had built fortified earthen\nembankments each several kilometers long, to resist the advance of the ground\ntroops. The Air Force attacked these fortifications from the air and\nfacilitated the advance of the ground troops. One of the reasons why the ground\ntroops could advance rapidly was due to the air support they got.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force also used Unmanned\nAerial Vehicles for reconnaissance purposes behind enemy lines and the\nartillery units on the ground were thereby able to obtain accurate information\non potential enemy targets. I believe it is our Air Force, among all other Air\nForces in the world which has the most extensive experience in combatting\nterrorism. No terrorist organisation in the world has had air capability. Even\nISIS which controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria for a while, did not have\nthe capacity to launch terrorist attacks by air. The LTTE was unique among\nterrorist organisations in that respect. They introduced a new dimension to\nglobal terrorism through their air attacks. Their strategy was to use slow,\nlow-flying small aircraft that operate only at night to carry out attacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our people used the term ‘kurumbetti’\nto refer to the LTTE’s attack aircraft. But the LTTE used these small aircraft\nto bomb important facilities such as the oil refinery in Kolonnawa, the oil storage\nfacilities in Kerawalapitiya and the Air Force base in Katunayake. Fortunately\nfor us, those attacks were not successful. If they had succeeded, the damage\nwould have been immense. When the LTTE commenced these air operations, the\nattention of the entire world was focused on what was happening in Sri Lanka.\nThe terrorists had modified their small planes in such a manner that the air to\nair missiles on our jet attack aircraft could not detect the heat signature\nfrom their aircraft engines. That was the first time the world had encountered\nsuch a terrorist tactic.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the LTTE that introduced\ninnovations like the suicide jacket and small, fast, explosives laden boats\nmanned by suicide cadres to global terrorism. Using small, slow, low-flying\nmodified aircraft for night time air attacks was another innovation that the\nLTTE introduced to global terrorism. These are the reasons why the FBI\nofficially declared the LTTE to be the world\u2019s deadliest terrorist group in\n2008. Thus, our Air Force possesses experience in combatting terrorism that no\nother Air Force in the world has. In today\u2019s world, nation states rarely go to\nwar with one another. Terrorism is the problem that most often requires\nmilitary solutions today. In this respect, our armed forces possess a great\ndeal of valuable experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lanka Air Force entered the\nfour decade long war from the 1980s, after the terrorists began controlling\nterritory. From that time until the end of the end of the war, the Sri Lanka\nAir Force played an indispensable role in the defence of the motherland. When\nthe LTTE concentrated all their forces and attacked isolated Army camps deep\nwithin enemy territory, Air Force pilots took enormous risks, taking\nhelicopters into those camps to evacuate the injured and to supply arms. They\nalso attacked the enemy from the air to relieve pressure on the beleaguered\ncamp. The heroism of these pilots is now a part of the history of that war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not only in times of war that\nthe armed forces serve the people. They also have a peacetime role. Everyone\nhas seen the role the Air Force plays in relief operations during disasters\nsuch as floods. That role in relief operations is something that only the Air\nForce can perform. The Air Force also performs surveillance duties with regard\nto Sri Lanka\u2019s coast and monitors foreign vessels entering Sri Lanka\u2019s maritime\nzone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young officers receiving their\ncommissions and Flying Brevets today will be the heirs of that legacy of\nservice to the nation. I have the fullest confidence that you will fulfil your\nfuture duties in a manner befitting the historic legacy of the Sri Lanka Air\nForce. I wish you well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEDIA RELEASE-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (Translation of the text of the speech delivered by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on the occasion of the Commissioning of officers and the award of  Flying Brevets by the Sri Lanka Air Force on 17 January 2020) Venerable members of the Maha Sangha, clergymen of other faiths, Hon. State Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mahinda-rajapaksa","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}