Sri Lanka Navy to celebrate Diamond Jubilee:

Giant shield against terrorism

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Protecting the island from possible threats that may hinder national security would have been an enormous task vested with the Sri Lanka Navy which began sailing on the territorial waters of Sri Lanka from December 9, 1950, as the Royal Ceylon Navy.

Today, after a six-decade long journey the Sri Lanka Navy has created not only a stronger first line of defence across the coasts of the country but is also a giant shield against global terrorism. It has placed the nation on a higher pedestal on the global map of maritime security.

No one would have thought that Sri Lanka’s Navy, a lilliput among nations equipped with state-of-the-art ships and maritime equipment, could conquer a giant terror network and disrupt its arms smuggling network bringing them to zero level along with the other Armed Forces of the country.

Navy Commander Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, said “The Sri Lanka Navy is a small force but is an experienced battle hardened robust one that has met this challenge and decisively defeated a terrorist group that was at the cutting edge of maritime terror”.

The Sri Lanka Navy will celebrate its Diamond Jubilee on December 9, at a time when it could boast of a historic achievement after its contribution to defeat LTTE terrorism and also at a vital juncture when it is going to face the biggest challenge of sealing off the country for the remnants of LTTE terrorism and other forms of terrorism that may hinder the nation from reaching its much awaited prosperity in the post-conflict scenario.

The Royal Ceylon Volunteer Navy and the Ceylon Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (CRNVR) were integrated to form the Royal Ceylon Navy in 1950; and the ship Vijaya under the command of Captain Bank was gifted by Britain.

The European dominated Navy first came to the hands of Sri Lankans when Captain Royce de Mel took over its command on September 19, 1955. The prime role of the Royal Ceylon Navy was confined to a narrow area of tackling the issues of illegal immigrants and smugglers arriving from South India.

The establishment of the Karainagar Naval Base and the acquisition of the Trincomalee Military Base during the premiership of D.S. Senanayake and the taking over of the security of the Colombo harbour in 1958 were milestones in the Navy’s first decade of existence.

Though a number of ships were acquired to the Navy during the 1960s and ‘70s along with the extension of Sri Lanka’s relationship with socialist countries like China and Russia, its role was confined to traditional duties such as protection of territorial waters, prevention of illegal immigrants and smugglers, conducting search and rescue operations, providing protection to fishermen and other ceremonial duties until the mid-1980s.

It was the emergence of the LTTE’s Sea Tiger wing in the mid 1980s that led the Navy to come out with the speedy acquisition of offshore and inshore patrol craft to prevent terror activities in the Northern and Eastern seas, the major avenues of increasing the LTTE’s fire power through smuggling of arms to the shores from various countries.

The Sri Lanka Navy entered into an era of ‘Dvoras’ and ‘Water jets’ two popular craft meant for speedy manoeuvering in the sea to prevent LTTE activity.

The Navy also enhanced its fighting capabilities, manpower and technology to counter all forms of terror activities thus facing suicide boat squadrons of the LTTE effectively in the sea.

The Special Boat Squadron, the Rapid Action Boat Squadron and the locally made arrow boats came into action as a result of the experiments conducted by the Navy to face the threat posed by the LTTE.

The acquisition of offshore patrol vessels like ‘Sayura’from India helped the Navy to increase its offshore patrolling capabilities to detect major arms smuggling vessels of the LTTE and counter major LTTE sea battles.

Increased surveillance capabilities of the Navy contributed to confine the LTTE’s gun-running activities in the Northern and Eastern seas.

It was in the late 1990s that the Navy did an in-depth analysis on the ways and means to control Tiger arms smuggling activities which had become a cornerstone for the increased terror activities of the LTTE and for increasing its bargaining power.

That laid a strong foundation for the Navy to go ahead with a long term plan to cripple the arms smuggling networks of the LTTE with the gathering of intelligence from foreign nations.

The Navy gave serious thought to enhance its capabilities in turning its role into a blue water Navy, enabling deep sea operations.

These preparations for achieving the objective of crippling the Tiger arms smuggling network bore fruit when the Navy had the backing of President Rajapaksa to go all out at sea to destroy LTTE floating warehouses in 2007.

The Navy saw the climax of their sea operations in the search of LTTE’s floating warehouses on international waters when they destroyed seven LTTE vessels in 2007 in the deep seas off the Sri Lanka coast paralysing their arms smuggling network.

That was the biggest achievement the Navy reached during its existence and might be the biggest ever contribution by a Navy against a terror organisation anywhere in the world.

The benefits Sri Lanka reached through this act was immense as the LTTE had to think afresh on their arms smuggling operations and led to their total elimination from Sri Lankan soil.

Along with the contribution made by the Navy against the LTTE sea operations, it also had to make bridges between the South and the North when the LTTE stood between the Vanni and the Northern peninsula separating the Forces personnel and the civilians from the mainland.

It was the Jet Liner, the ferry which transported troops from the South to the North to make the Jaffna peninsula untenable to the LTTE. The sensitivity of the entire operation of carrying 3,000 troops to and from Jaffna peninsula highlighted as it gave sleepless nights for the commanders of three Forces and the field commanders until they saw this operation completed.

The massive suicide boats laden with more than 2,000 kgs of explosives which were found in the North Eastern coast in the North of Mullaitivu in the final stages of the humanitarian operation explicitly explains the LTTE’s eagerness to disrupt troop movement conducted by the Navy.

The Navy did not allow the LTTE to come even close to the ship during the entire humanitarian operation after foiling their efforts to disrupt it.

The Navy contributed its wholehearted service to the humanitarian operation of salvaging civilians from the clutches of terrorism. They rescued thousands of civilians fleeing from uncleared areas in the final days of the conflict.

Not only did the Navy make the efforts of the ground troops successful by completely sealing off the sea in the North in the final days of the war but also made it complete by preventing the Tiger leader escaping the country.

One and a half years after the elimination of the LTTE the role of the Navy is subject to expansion.

The construction of new harbours, liberalisation of the fishing industry and exploration of marine resources within the territorial waters of Sri Lanka have made its role bigger and wider.

Above all the Navy is entrusted with the task of protecting the country from the remnants of the LTTE that still haunt foreign soils with the intention of establishing itself again in Sri Lanka.

The hope and wish of this nation is that the Sri Lanka Navy which celebrates its Diamond Jubilee on December 9 will fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the nation yearning for a better future in a peaceful environment by making the golden fence around the country a much brighter and strong one.