Sri Lanka Navy:

Diamond Jubilee celebrations

Special correspondent

Committed to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Motherland, preserving the strength it gained by its pivotal contribution to the eradication of the 30-year long brutal terrorism off the Lankan soils intact, utilizing the same efforts used for the destruction of the supply and escape routes of the terrorists through its continuous surveillance along our coastal belt and territorial waters and thwarting the re-emergence of terrorism in the country, Sri Lanka Navy is fortifying itself into a more formidable force today.

The necessity to re-establish a Naval Force was felt during World War I in the island of Sri Lanka, which had once made admirable victories in Naval battles having sailed into foreign countries during the reigns of its great kings such as Parakramabhahu and Vijayabhahu.

Sri Lanka Navy came into being 60 years ago on December 9, 1950 as the Royal Ceylon Navy with the integration of the Royal Ceylon Volunteer Navy and the Ceylon Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (CRNVR) which expanded from the Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force (CNVF) formed as a fulfillment of that necessity.

During the period Captain Banks became the Commander of the Navy. In the 1950s, Royal Ceylon Navy received the ship ‘Vijaya’ from Britain as a gift. The commissioning ceremony of this ship was presided over by the late Prime Minister D S Senanayake.

Queen Elizabeth

It was onboard the ship ‘Nonik’ that Queen Elizabeth arrived in Ceylon in 1954 as the Head of the Commonwealth. It was the Royal Ceylon Navy which accorded the Guard of Honour to her. In 1954 Drum Major Cruse made a creative contribution by training a music band for the Royal Ceylon Navy.

0n September 19, 1955, the helm of the Navy was transferred from white hands to black hands with the handing over of the post of Commander of the Royal Ceylon Navy to Captain Royce de Mel by the last European Captain Chavasse.

During this decade the challenging task entrusted to the Royal Ceylon Navy was the tackling of illegal immigrants and smugglers arriving from South India. The Karainagar Naval Base was established to prevent this menace. The small vessels ‘Hansaya’ and ‘Lihiniya’ were acquired as a solution to this preventive policy.

Royal Ceylon Navy

It was in the year 1957 after the acquisition of the Trincomalee Military Base by the late Prime Minister S W R D Bandaranaike from Britain that the Royal Ceylon Navy entered the era of expansion.

The entrusting of the security of the Colombo Harbour to the Royal Ceylon Navy with the outbreak of the general strike in 1958 marked its entry into fulfill a complex range of duties.

In the 1960s, ‘Vijaya’ as well as ‘Mahasen’, ‘Parakrama’ and ‘Gajaba’ made appearances in the Sri Lankan maritime stage only to render seamanship training and to perform ceremonial duties.

It was impossible to prevent the increasing smuggling and illegal Indian immigrant activities in the North with the big vessels with large displacements. Therefore, the Navy badly felt the need for fast vessels with reduced displacements. The Navy acquired Asia’s fastest vessel ‘Hydrofoil’ as a result.

Protecting ocean

In the 1960s, the Navy had to pay more attention to the security and the protection of the country than to its entrusted duties. The responsibility entrusted to protect the people and the public property was greater than that of protecting the ocean. The Navy, which had faith in peoples’ peaceful co-existence for the maintenance of public law and order, went about on the public roads as exemplary sailors exhibiting a very high degree of discipline.

In the 1970s with the entry of Diesel-powered vessels into the maritime scene, the steam-powered ‘Vijaya’, ‘Parakrama’, ‘Mahasen’ and ‘Gajabah’ had to make a sad exit. The need badly felt was not to restrict the Navy’s future existence to a few small vessels. With friendly relations developed with socialist countries after Sri Lanka becoming a republic on May 22, 1972, Russia and China came forward to provide new ships. As a result, the Navy acquired the Russian ship ‘Samudradevi’.

However, the Navy decided to acquire more Chinese ships since they suited Sri Lankan waters better. With the acquisition of Chinese ships, the maritime avenues were widened to pursue more powerful targets than before. However, the head start given by the British Navy can never be forgotten.

Until the mid 1980s, Sri Lanka Navy was involved in traditional Naval duties such as protection of territorial waters, prevention of illegal immigration and smuggling, search and rescue operations, providing protection to fishermen, assisting civil administration and assisting the Government during national disasters. Participation in national and State festivals was also among the duties.

Terrorist activities

With the emergence of the LTTE Sea Tiger wing known as ‘Kadalpura’ in 1985, Sri Lanka Navy entered into the prevention of terrorist activities at sea in addition to its traditional duties. With this, the fighting power of the Navy gradually increased and, as an initial step, the Fast Attack Crafts’ known as ‘Dvoras’ were acquired in the mid 1980s. These fast attack crafts were used specially to prevent terrorist activities in the Northern and Eastern coastal areas and to destroy Sea Tiger boats by launching attacks in addition to the protection of territorial waters. Meanwhile, the Navy added several surveillance vessels as well.

Sea supply routes

In response to the growing Sea Tiger activities and staying ahead of them, the Navy developed its fighting power by rapidly increasing its manpower, training, fighting capability and technology. Although the terrorists had developed their suicide craft by the mid 1990s, the Navy was able to maintain its ability to counter the terrorists’ suicide threat.

The Navy’s other vessels and ships accordingly made immense contributions by making surveillance and patrolling of high seas to block the sea supply routes used for smuggling arms to the terrorists and providing support to the sea battles launched by Fast Attack Craft.

Meanwhile, the Navy assisted in the transportation of Security Forces personnel required for ground operations, landing of troops and providing fire power for the battles from the sea whenever needed.

It also made immense contributions to the constant provision of all supplies to the Security Forces personnel through the Naval supply routes centering the Trincomalee Base in the face of suicide attacks of the terrorists and transportations of troops by Naval vessels.

The Navy acted with great commitment to transport essential supplies to sustain the lifeblood of the innocent civilians in the North and to attend to their transportation needs.

Economic centres

Although the terrorists desperately attempted to destroy the strategic economic centres of Sri Lanka and our harbours by launching attacks, the Navy, providing constant security, thwarted all attacks on harbours and never allowed the terrorists to succeed.

The Special Boat Squadron (SBS) of the Sri Lanka Navy, launched in the mid 1990s with the attacks launched in the Jaffna Lagoon against terrorists by the Navy, made great contributions to the Naval operations by fighting the enemy on land, at sea and by air bravely and destroying formidable enemy targets successfully.

With the commencement of battles in the operational areas against the terrorists, the need was felt to establish a Patrolman Branch to assure the safety of the armoured vehicles transporting materials and personnel needed for the administrative purposes in the Naval bases and to maintain Naval dominance by launching attacks in the adjacent areas for the protection of the Naval bases.

The new branch rapidly grew in strength by 1997. It was the Navy’s Patrolman Branch that provided immense contributions for over three years to the protection of the areas liberated in the ‘Jaya Sikuru’ operations, providing of security to all islands in the North from the late 1990s and to the security of coastal belt North and South of the Trincomalee Harbour and Mannar island as well as land areas in Silawathura and Mullikulum areas along the North-Western coastal belt from the beginning of the humanitarian operations.

For the Naval operations conducted at sea as well as coastal areas and the security of the Naval Bases, the Navy’s Intelligence Branch became fully established by the late 1980s for the gathering and analysis of information related to terrorist activities and it made immense contributions to the planning and the successes of the Naval operations.

Warfare strategies

Thwarting terrorist attacks from the sea for three decade, Sri Lanka Navy destroyed their backbone with the experience gained from constant sea battles while developing its own maritime warfare strategies and tactics.

When a bunch of terrorists, who made escape across the Palk Straits in small dinghies armed with a handful of guns, transformed themselves into a brutal terrorist group called Sea Tigers capable of attacking Naval and merchant ships using fast attack vessels and suicide craft, Sri Lanka Navy, accordingly developed its fighting power and faced the threat bravely developing its own innovative counter maritime warfare strategy with the support of the Fast Attack Craft combining conventional and asymmetric warfare strategies.

Operating along the same strategies, the Navy took the world by surprise with the small boat concept by combining the forces of the Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and the Rapid Action Boat Squadron.

The world maritime powers today eagerly seek the Navy’s battle experiences and its innovative strategies, which they have never known before, to counter maritime terrorism.

To be continued