Sri Lanka Military Aviation

Hope the best for Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

Hi,
I do not want to explain or carry this conversation into a political topic.

Safety of airspace and Air power is a crucial part for every nation's national security. Every government should invest on this to maintain National Security and regional safety and cooperation.
Mentioned Aircrafts and Helicopters are for training purposes. Every Air force needs to maintain air power and Capable cadre is needed for that. TH57 Helicopters (Military designation for Bell206 Jet ranger Helicopters designed for US Navy) will provide Rotorcraft training which is an essential part of SLAF, Since Helicopters can be used for any kind of purpose with its reliability and versatility within the Island and around the Island. (E.g. : Natural Disasters, Medevac, Surveillance, Air Ambulance and all kind of evacuations)

FT-7p which is the training Tandem Seater version of F-7 fighter Jets will provide Advanced Jet training for Pilots who operates under No.05 Sqn which utilizes F-7s.

Please note that As a nation, Sri Lanka cannot afford newer equipment or aircrafts but to purchase or receive bit older or used equipment from other nations in-order to maintain Airpower. Because of that reason this will be a good cheaper move with less risk , instead of "doing nothing".
All these aircrafts types are easy to maintain and SLAF has the ability and technical knowledge to maintain.

And Also, Both TH57 and FT-7ps are Grants from USA and Pakistan respectively.

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How risky is this move? Can Sri Lanka afford this financially? Why are they need this right now ?

Hi all,

Most recent new on SLAF,
AF is about to receive 8 units of TH-57 Sea Ranger + 2 additional units as spare parts as a grant from United States within 1st Q of 2025 and overhauled FT-7 from Pakistan Airforce.
https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-...tan/108-299279

Check the link for more info!

SMR 844 Brandnew Beechcraft SuperKing Air 360ER (N1284B) landed yesterday at RML. To be joined with No.08 Sqn.As a grant from USA, modified by US army, equiped with,

• Telephonics RDR-1700B synthetic aperture radar with LN-251 inertial navigation system
• FLIR Star Safire 380-HD electro-optical/infra-red sensors
• a dual, side-facing mission system console for two operators
• a full-motion video line-of-sight tactical datalink with mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) capability
• Cobham Flexcomm RT-7000 PMR tactical radio

According to Airforce news, airforce.lk, Airforce is seeking for C130s.https://www.airforce.lk/news.php?news=6460 not clear about overhauling existing c130s or buying used ones.

SLAF AN-32Bs have landed in Colombo from the Ukraine last night (11.06.2021) at around 1930hrs with a water salute and a small ceremony at the SLAF Base, Katunayake. Image - Asiri Fernando.
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Hi. They'll be landing at VCBI on the 11th June during dusk time. Everything has been reworked and are new. I shall look into the rest of the upgrades and let you know.

Hey Haleef, when are we to expect the An-32Bs arrival to CMB?
Do you know what changes/upgrades they have done to these 3 birds?
Thanks

Thank you SHOCKWAVE, this is already a great help and reduces the amount of candidates. I think the identity of this Airbus fuselage is the 4R-ABC however confirmation is needed of course.

It’s an A320 used for training purposes by Sri Lankan Aviation College.

No, it's a B737 fuselage as instructional airframe what can be seen on Google Earth at coordinates 7.178716° 79.889014°

Hi Ervin,

Welcome to our forum. It really nice to meet you ? Good to see your aviation photos you took in Sri Lanka on flickr..

Are you referring to B727F ? There is no B737 stored in CMB.

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Dear fellow aviation hobbyists!
As I’m very interested in aircraft Wrecks & Relics (W&R), I’m looking for some missing identities of preserved, stored & instructional airframes what can be found in Sri Lanka. For this reason I’m asking for your help to make the list complete. When I’m finished with the whole W&R list of Sri Lanka, I’m more than happy to publish this list on this forum. Photos of these stored, preserved or instructional aircraft are also very much appreciated
Thank you all for your help and assistance in advance!
Kind regards,
Erwin Alexander

I’m looking for information etc for the flowing airframes in Sri Lanka:

Location: Anuradhapura
Coordinates: 8.310425° 80.424877°
Aircraft: An-24RV registration UN-46644 preserved as “4R-CAA”
What do I need from this airframe: Identity needs confirmation that this is really this airframe

Location: Anuradhapura
Coordinates: 8.302013° 80.427332°
Aircraft: Unknown (possibly SF.260 Sri Lanka AF serial CT125)
What do I need from this airframe: Identity needed of this airframe

Location: Ekala
Coordinates: 7.113877° 79.904755°
Aircraft: SF.260 & small prop
What do I need from these airframe(s): Identity needed of both (instructional) airframes what now can be found inside the new build hangar

Location: Ekala
Coordinates: 7.114326° 79.905367°
Aircraft: Cessna 337 (Gone? Not visible anymore on GE image 14-1-2020)
What do I need from this airframe: Identity needed of this airframe and what happened with it as it has gone from its location

Location: Hingurakgoda
Coordinates: 8.050661° 80.979172°
Aircraft: Mig-17
What do I need from this airframe: Identity needed of this airframe

Location: Katunayaka
Coordinates: 7.182760° 79.883135°
Aircraft: 5x Mi-24 & 1x Mi-8
What do I need from these airframe(s): Identity needed of all these stored helicopters

Location: Katunayaka
Coordinates: 7.181561° 79.879859°
Aircraft: 3x MiG-27
What do I need from these airframe(s): Identity needed of these three stored MiG-27’s

Location: Katunayaka
Coordinates: 7.185542° 79.878709°
Aircraft: An.32 fuselage & MiG-27 forward fuselage at the Fire Services
What do I need from these airframe(s): Identity needed of these two instructional airframes

Location: Katunayaka
Coordinates: 7.178716° 79.889014°
Aircraft: A320 fuselage
What do I need from this airframe: 4R-ABC??? Identity needs confirmation

Location: Ratmalana
Coordinates: 6.818805° 79.891110°
Aircraft: Cessna 337
What do I need from this airframe: Identity needed of this preserved airframe

Location: Sigiriya
Coordinates: 7.947026° 80.727879°
Aircraft: SF.260
What do I need from this airframe: Identity needed of this preserved airframe

Again, any help is very much appreciated to get the identities of above aircraft.

Cheers,
Erwin