Navy played pivotal role in isolating Tigers

by Ranil Wijayapala

When Sri Lanka celebrates the fifth anniversary of the great victory achieved on May 18, 2009, that of eliminating the LTTE from Sri Lankan soil, we cannot forget the pivotal role played by the Sri Lanka Navy in isolating the Tiger outfit from the rest of the world by creating a 'golden fence' around the island nation.

If not for the role played by the Navy, the LTTE would have become terror outfit equipped with the most sophisticated weapons in the world with the Tamil diaspora spread across the globe funding them to acquire state-of-the-art weaponry to continue their battles against the Security Forces, thus making it an invincible terror outfit.

Equipped with limited maritime assets, the Sri Lanka Navy adjusted itself to the role they had to play with the decades-long confrontations they had with Sea Tigers, to defeat them at sea and eliminate the only terror outfit in the world equipped with a sea wing.

Therefore, the Navy through long studies took up the challenge posed by the LTTE in the sea, by changing their methods of operation and military hardware in confronting the Tigers as they became a deadly force in sea battles.

The Navy understood well that it was not enough to go after the small boats which carried arms and ammunition to the shore in small quantities to feed their needs in ground battles and launched operations targeting the floating warehouses which supplied the small vessels.

Warehouse ships

It was with the better use of intelligence from friendly nations that the targeted the remote LTTE vessels that were more than a thousand nautical miles from Sri Lankan waters continuously supplying arms and ammunitions to the small feeder vessels of the LTTE.

It was due to that effort with the blessing of the top defence hierarchy and friendly nations that the Navy hunted down and destroyed several LTTE cargo ships. Between September 2006 and October 2007, Naval vessels destroyed eight large LTTE warehouse ships containing over 10,000 tons of war-related material using a flotilla of three offshore patrol vessels (OPV) supported by old tankers, merchant vessels and fishing trawlers.

That ability of the Sri Lanka Navy kept Sri Lanka's territorial waters free from arms smuggling, illegal drug and human trafficking and sea piracy.

But the Navy developed that ability with the innovative and maximum use of the limited resources they had and not by acquiring new vessels to launch deep sea operations.

The Navy's two Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) Sayura and Samudura assisted by the Fast Missile Vessels (FMVs) formed the strike capacity while adjusting the two commercial vessels and a landing ship (LST Shakthi) to act as replenishment vessels carrying everything from fuel to fresh water needed for the long endurance patrols which some times exceeded a 1,000 nautical miles.

When bigger vessels were hunting the floating warehouses, the innovative 'Small Boat Concept' introduced by the Navy to counter fast attack boats operated by the Sea Tiger Wing on suicide missions could outnumber the Tiger boats operating in the sea.

Rapid responsc

The Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and the Rapid Action Boat Squadrons (RABS) organised with a team of hand-picked Naval personnel and equipped with 25 to 30 craft and stationed them in high-threat locations along the northern and eastern coast enabled the Navy to rapidly respond to and interdict Sea Tiger units at sea.

That helped the Navy to counter the LTTE Sea Tigers and the success of the operational mechanism was proved with the drastic reduction of the number of confrontations the LTTE had with the Navy from 2006 to 2009 and finally getting defeated forever as they could not withstand the Navy's ability to confront them.

But beyond the confrontations the SLN had with the LTTE in the sea it had yet another gigantic task to assure victory against the LTTE on the ground.

The ferry Jetliner played a pivotal role in keeping the lifeline of supplies of goods and servicemen between Jaffna peninsula and the other parts of the country, when land based transport was not available due to terrorism. That also helped the ground troops to counter the LTTE strategy of isolating the Jaffna peninsula from the rest of the country as the Jetliner alone managed troop transporting tasks.

It shouldered the entire responsibility of transporting 40,000 to 50,000 members of the Sri Lankan military and Police forces along with food, supplies, arms and ammunition amidst countless efforts by the Tigers to destroy that link until the ground troops cleared the land route upto Jaffna in the first week of January 2009.

If not for that task by the Navy despite the challenges posed by the LTTE launching unimaginable suicide craft targeting the Jetliner, the missions the ground troops carried out in Jaffna peninsula would not have been possible.

The Navy's role on the ground also expanded from 2006 and it contributed immensely to the victory against the LTTE. The Navy's ground deployment expanded from 2006 from Jaffna Islands including Delft coastal belt from Karainagar, KKS, Mannar Island, Kalpitiya, Trincomalee north up to Yan Oya, Sampur, Mutthur, Upparu, Gangei, Arugama Bay,Yala, Silawathurai, Kondachchikudah and Mullikulam and engaged in major battles in the northern and eastern provinces. In Mannar, the Navy played a critical role in thwarting LTTE attempts to smuggle in contraband to areas under its control.

By 2009 the Sri Lanka Navy deployed over 12,000 naval personnel out of its 48,000 strength in operational areas in support of ground troops.The Navy's maritime operations coupled with ground operations proved invaluable in the defeat of the Tamil Tigers and the LTTE starved of arms and ammunitions at the latter part of military operations was forced to go back to rudimentary tactics such as using improvised mortars and rockets instead of military grade munitions and arms.

Therefore, the 'golden fence' around this tear drop island in the Indian Ocean proved that it was a formidable force that could withstand and adjust within a limited span of time to face any challenge in protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Mother Lanka and contribute to secure that great victory against terrorism.