Sri Lanka Military Aviation

SLAF suspends civilian flights; incentives for other domestic operators
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The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has suspended civilian flights after the aviation regulator recalled the certificate of airworthiness (CofA) issued to its Xian MA60 aircraft, pending technical compliance. The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) and the Air Force also contradicted each other on the latter’s future plans for civilian passenger transport. In a notice on its website, the regulator says the SLAF recently informed the CAASL that it would not engage in the transport of civilian passengers. The SLAF denied this.

“The declaration in the CAASL notice is incorrect and has been mentioned without consultation with the SLAF,” Air Force media spokesman Gihan Seneviratne told the Sunday Times.
“The SLAF has not made any policy decision to refrain from transport of civilian passengers in duly approved and certified civilian transport aircraft and will continue working with the CAASL to improve its civilian passenger transport safety and standards,”Group Captain Seneviratne said.

But the SLAF admitted it had stopped scheduled civilian passenger transport for the time being, including its Jaffna and Trincomalee flights. One of its MA60s—acquired from China in 2011—is grounded for maintenance. The other is only operating military flights until a unit in its Pratt & Whitney engine is removed as required by the regulator.
“Under our regulations, we can still use it for military flights but to transport civilian passengers, we have to remove that small unit,” confirmed a senior SLAF officer. He said the MA60 will be compliant by the end of this month.

The SLAF has had prolonged discussions with the CAASL over shortcomings in its passenger transport operation. In 2015, the Sunday Times first reported that Helitours, SLAF’s domestic passenger carrier, was handing out indemnity forms to paying customers and flying them on Harbin Y-12 aircraft not cleared to transport civilians. These flights were run under military call signs against civil aviation regulations.

Despite undertakings to stop, this writer in October 2017 flew on the Harbin Y-12 to Jaffna after signing an indemnity form. The SLAF said at the time that it only did this when the MA60s were not available. The Y-12 is not listed in the civil aircraft register. The SLAF no longer was engaged in that practice and would also not do so in future, Grp Cpt Seneviratne said. The CAASL also confirmed that the SLAF was now cooperating with the regulator whenever it needed to do inspections, in a clear departure from past attitudes. The Y-12 is still available for civilian charter flights.

There are separate concerns that the SLAF’s involvement in civilian passenger transport is choking the domestic aviation sector by discouraging private operators who cannot compete on a level playing field. Helitours sustains lower flight operation costs as it is part of an established military structure. Private sector operators have repeatedly been edged out despite intermittent attempts to sustain scheduled operations.

The Sunday Times

Sri Lanka Navy will take delivery of a 378-foot High Endurance Cutter Sherman from the United States Coast Guard (USCG) in August this year.


A section of the crew assigned to the vessel is receiving training on board the vessel at USCG base Honolulu. The USCG decommissioned the 50-year-old ship in March this year.


A senior naval official told The Island that larger vessels were required for post-war responsibilities. "We need bigger platforms to patrol the 200 mile exclusive economic zone. The acquisition of USCG Cutter is in line with the overall strategy," the official said.In accordance with the agreement between the US and Sri Lanka, the latter had to pay for repairs, spare parts et al though the vessel was gifted.


The transfer of the vessel to Sri Lanka is scheduled to take place on the helipad of the vessel at USCG base


Honolulu on Aug 22 though it is expected to remain there until early Feb 2019.


According to Hawaii-based Sri Lanka’s Honorary Consul Bede Dhammika Cooray, in addition to the contingent assigned to the vessel, there were about two dozen SLN officers and men at the ongoing large scale naval exercise RIMPAC 2018.


USCG Sherman is one of only two of its class vessels to receive the Vietnam Service Award and the only Coast Guard Cutter to acquire the Combat Action Ribbon for action in the Vietnam War. Sherman is the last decommissioned warship in the Coast Guard to have sunk an enemy vessel in combat.


The number of SLN contingent was expected to reach about 80 before the Aug 22 ceremony though at present there were 30 personnel at Honolulu base. The ship crew is expected to reach 130 by the time it depart Honolulu.


During the conflict, Sri Lanka’s offshore patrolling capacity received a significant boost when the US handed over USCG Courageous in the run-up to the eelam war IV. USCG Courageous was commissioned SLNS Samudura and took part in some operations directed at the LTTE floating arsenal on the high seas.


USCG Courageous/SLNS Samudura, the only US vessel to serve the SLN during the war, in addition to half a dozen US built Fast Attack Craft (FACs) has been launched in 1967. USCG Sherman has been launched in the following year.


Authoritative sources told The Island that Sri Lanka would also receive an old Chinese frigate mounted with 100 mm weapon. Sources said that Chinese frigate was a grant and in line with decades long bilateral defence cooperation.


Sources said that almost a decade after the conclusion of the war; Sri Lanka was engaged expanding its capacity to efficiently patrol its exclusive economic zone. Sri Lanka took delivery of state-of-the art two Indian built Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPVs) after the last presidential poll in January 2015. In addition to the two APOVs-SLNS Sayurala and SLNS Sindurala, the SLN fleet includes five Offshore Patrol Vessels, one Landing Ship Tank, four Fast Gun Boats, two auxiliary ships (both gifted by Australia) et al.


A senior official said that during the conflict the SLN had to depend on Fast Attack Craft (FAC) fleet to counter the then threat posed by Sea Tigers. At the height of the war, there were almost 60 operational FACs though all weren’t suited to face the challenge posed by Sea Tigers’ ‘suicide packs’. In the absence of war, ongoing efforts were aimed at discouraging Indian fishing fleet regularly crossing the international maritime boundary and effective policing of high seas.


Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Coast Guard recently took delivery of two brand new 30 m Japanese-built patrol boats which were expected to be commissioned by President Maithripala Sirisena.


Japanese provided Sri Lanka with a grant of up to 1.83 billion yen (approx. US$18M) for the SLCG to obtain two new patrol boats.


The delivery of brand new patrol boats coincided with the recently concluded third Japan-Sri Lanka dialogue on maritime security, safety and oceanic issues held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Colombo.

No money = no aircraft.

Read the papers - the country is bankrupt.

I think PT-6 has been delivered to Sri Lanka. Notsure how many were delivered?
It seems to be Female Air force pilots are training on this aircraft.

what happened to the SU-30 deal for SLAF?

Oh ok. So they overhauled one that was already working? Or did its flight hours expire and immediately started working on it

3 F-7 only in operation, no more, no less, and just 1 Kfir C2.

(2x) F-7GS; SFI-782, SFI-783.
(1x) FT-7; SFT-703.

Oh right thanks for clarifying!

I beleive they actually have 4 because at the air show in march 2017 two were seen flying. Then later that year 2 were overhauled. That's a total of four. 3 F7GS and 1 FT-7 trainer

The problem with the country isnt really the cu
Corruption, but the negativity. People here always find something wrong, even when our government, in all its "wisdom", occasionally present a good idea everyone is negative about it.

People here critisice but no one is willing to do anything about it. Too lazy so all they do is complain.

In other countries you have something called "The Rule of Law"

This means there is accountability and people are put on trial and punished according to their crimes.

In Sri Lanka there is a culture of impunity and zero accountability. The Rule of Law doesn't exist at all imho.

Yes. of course! but if you think like that we couldn't do anything with any countries. All the countries have their own agendas. It is not common for defense.

"It's all about the money" yes. Almost everything in this world is about money. This is a universal problem....

That may have been the case in the past - now these deals are all about the Kickbacks and Commissions.

It's all about the money - nothing else. I'm sure you all know plenty of Sri Lankans who would sell their own mothers for a few Rupees.

Very naive to think that the countries you listed are "friends" - they all have their own agendas.

May be your assumption is right. Specially from the price perspective you got the point. Prices should be lower

But when we think about maintainability and cost of maintaining Chinese aircrafts are cheaper than western ones. and also there is a maintainence/spare parts package warrenty when buying aircrafts. not only just aircraft price. and i think they considered fact that SLAF already got Chinese Aircraft overfauled facility.

During war time once US refused to give spare parts for Bell helicopters of SLAF. and also in 80s Sri Lanka Army got many British Armored Vehicles. England also refused to give spares and ammunition for these vehicles in late 80s. That was main reason SL heavily rely of Chinese and Russian vehicles there after.

Russia, Pakistan and China are all weather friends of SL. So if you think strategically its a good move to buy from them but as you said with accountability.

Yes F7s that we received in 2007 was not brand new ones. We needed small scale interceptors to intercept LTTE's Zlin aircrafts (Kurumbatti). I don't sure whether they are reburished either before we got it, because there was a emergency.

And however we were able to intercept one of their Zlín Z 43 in 2009, which was first ever Air Kill of SLAF using these F7s.

SLAF recieved 4 F7 GS ,that were not brand new but converted/upgraded airframes, currently I think there are 3 F7s operational including 2 F7 GS