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Sri Lanka NATIONAL SECURITY
Armed Forces: Total strength about 48,000 personnel,
including reservists on active duty. President serves as
commander in chief and defense minister. Minister of national
security reports to president, serves as deputy defense minister,
presides over Joint Operations Command, which exercises overall
responsibility for government counterinsurgency and
counterterrorist effort. Chain of command extends downward to
individual service commanders, deputy commanders, and chiefs of
staff.
Army: Total strength including reservists on active
duty, up to 40,000 personnel. Major tactical units five infantry
brigade-sized task forces, each with three battalions. Other
formations include one or two battalion-sized reconnaissance
regiments, plus artillery, engineer, signals, and logistical
units. In 1988 army reorganized territorially with individual
battalions assigned to each of twenty-one sectors, corresponding
generally to administrative districts; sectors grouped into two
area commands: Division One for southern half of country,
Division Two for northern half. Following Indo-Sri Lankan Accord
of July 1987, army deployed against Tamil insurgents in Mannar
and Vavuniya Districts, Northern Province, and against JVP
terrorists in Southern Province. Military equipment includes
small arms of Chinese, Singapore, Pakistani, and Western origin;
armored cars and armored personnel carriers of British, South
African, and domestic manufacture; mortars and light-to-medium-
artillery pieces from Yugoslavia, Pakistan, and the Federal
Republic of Germany (West Germany).
Navy: Total strength, including reservists on active
duty, about 4,000 to 6,000 personnel. Service organized
administratively into three naval area commands: Northern,
Eastern, and Western (a fourth, Southern, to be established),
with main naval base at Trincomalee, smaller installations at
Karainagar, Tangalla, and Kalpitiya, major facility under
construction at Galle. In 1988 principal naval mission patrol of
"surveillance zone" in Palk Strait to prevent gun-running by
Tamil insurgents between India and Sri Lanka; other naval tasks
include enforcement of Sri Lankan Exclusive Economic Zone. Total
inventory fifty-five vessels; major surface combatants six
command ships (used as tenders for patrol vessels in
"surveillance zone"); other ships include Cougar patrol craft and
amphibious vessels from Britain, Dvora and Super Dvora craft from
Israel, plus locally manufactured and older patrol boats from
China and the Soviet Union; additional ships under construction
in Republic of Korea (South Korea).
Air Force: Total strength, including reservists on
active duty, about 3,700 personnel deployed at 3 large and 9
smaller airbases countrywide. Principal air force missions
tactical air support for ground operations, military airlift, and
medical evacuation. Organization and inventory include one
counterinsurgency squadron with Italian SIAI Marchetti SF-260TP
light trainer aircraft, one helicopter squadron with United
States Bell models 212, 412, and Jet Ranger, and French SA-365
Dauphin-IIs rotary wing aircraft; one transport squadron with
Chinese Yun-8 and Yun-12 turboprops, plus assorted older
aircraft, including United States DC-3s (C-47s) and an Indian HS748 ; and one trainer squadron of light aircraft, including United
States Cessnas.
Paramilitary Forces: Sri Lankan National Police, total
strength 21,000 to 28,000 personnel, organized territorially into
three "ranges," subdivided into divisions, districts, and police
stations; includes National Intelligence Bureau and Police
Special Force (formerly Special Task Force), latter comprising
1,100 personnel organized into one oversize battalion of seven
companies, with units deployed against JVP terrorists in Southern
Province, or serving in rotation as presidential security guard.
Foreign Military Presence: Prior to Indo-Sri Lankan
Accord of 1987, small number of Pakistani, Israeli, and retired
British military advisers. Since August 1987 Indian Peacekeeping
Force (IPKF), reported strength 70,000 personnel, organized into
15 brigades, plus supporting units, deployed against Tamil
insurgents in Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Defense Expenditures: Increased from less than 1
percent of GDP in early 1980s to over 5 percent in 1987 because
of Tamil insurgency, but levelled off following Indo-Sri Lankan
Accord. In 1987 expenditures, including supplemental
appropriations, amounted to US$408 million or about 5.4 percent
of GDP. Projected defense expenditures for 1988 expected to
decline somewhat to US$340 million.
Internal Security: Insurgent movement known generically
as Tamil Tigers, active since about 1975, fighting for
independent state in Tamil areas of Sri Lanka; total estimated
strength 5,000 combatants; most prominent insurgent group
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE); other groups include
People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOT or PLOTE),
Eelam People's Revolutionary Organization of Students (EPROS),
Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), Eelam People's
Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). Separate terrorist
movement, known as JVP, composed of Sinhalese chauvinists,
estimated strength several hundred, opposed to Indo-Sri Lankan
Accord, active in Southern Province.
Data as of October 1988
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