• Lack of clarity about ‘Defence 2030’ review
• Need to shift security focus to look outwards
• SL lacks capacity and capabilities to effectively counter emerging threats

 The Government of Sri Lanka last week pushed back against strong criticism calling for the national defence and security establishment to be urgently reformed and the continued colossal expenditure on defence to be curtailed, as the bankrupt island nation struggles to regain its feet following an unprecedented economic crisis.

According to the Budget estimates for 2023, the Government plans to spend Rs. 410 billion on defence, with the continued practice of a lion’s share – Rs. 209 billion – being allocated to the Sri Lanka Army, the Navy being allocated Rs. 75 billion, the Air Force Rs. 66 billion, and the Civil Security Department Rs. 19.9 billion.

According to the Ministry of Defence (MOD), it is likely that defence expenditure, which was again increased by Rs. 50 billion for 2023 by the Wickremesinghe-Gunawardena led Government, will not see a significant reduction soon.

‘Defence 2030’ policy

The defence reforms process, which the Government is expected to undertake, will only be possible following a review of the current national security architecture, which will allow it to decide on a desired posture for 2030, State Minister for Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon told The Sunday Morning.

“We are now carrying out a review of the entire defence and security establishment and this will be used to draft the ‘Defence 2030’ policy of the Government. Any reforms and restructuring of the armed forces will be based on the ‘Defence 2030’ policy,” Tennakoon said, in response to a question. He declined to elaborate on how the process would happen or if it would be subjected to parliamentary oversight.

Addressing a press conference on the matter last week, Tennakoon argued that the State could not simply ‘downsize’ the military as suggested by some and that it could only be right-sized in line with national interests.  

When asked about a timeline on when the ‘Defence 2030’ policy would be completed, Tennakoon said he could not comment on it. Responding to whether the defence policy would be open to the public in the form of a defence white paper or strategic review similar to the practice in other democratic countries, Minister Tennakoon stated that countries did not discuss defence policy in public.  

During his Budget speech in Parliament last month, President Ranil Wickremesinghe responded to criticism about continued prioritisation of defence expenditure, stating that a gradual reduction in the armed forces numbers and expenditure would happen following the ‘Defence 2030’ review.

However, attempts to contact the Presidential Secretariat regarding how the review would be conducted went unanswered. Attempts by The Sunday Morning to contact the President’s Advisor on National Security Sagala Ratnayaka on defence expenditure and the review also failed.

One of the core issues with the lack of clarity on defence posture is the absence of a National Security Policy (NSP) for Sri Lanka. The Sunday Morning reliably learns that in 2019, the then Government began drafting an NSP. However, the status of that endeavour also remains unclear.  

Non-defence-related expenditure

Tennakoon argued that part of the overheads covered from the Budget allocations issued to the MOD had been spent on a 32,347 strong civilian labour force, hired on a non-permanent basis for the Multipurpose Task Force, which is involved in infrastructure projects. According to the State Minister, each labourer is paid Rs. 22,500 per month. 

He also said that State institutions such as the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), National Building Research Organisation (NBRO), the Civil Security Department, the National Cadet Corps, and others under the Defence Ministry were also allocated funds under the defence expenditure.

When asked why the Ministry of Defence was shouldering an approximately 32,000 strong workforce used for infrastructure development, Tennakoon stated that the MOD was only carrying out the administration of the labour group and added that discussions were underway with other State institutions and line ministries, including the Ministry of Labour, on reassigning the force.

Need for a shift in thinking                    

According to former Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Navy, Rear Adm. (Retd) Y.N. Jayarathna, Sri Lanka needs to have a paradigm shift in the way it thinks about security and defence.

He advocates for a robust national security policy and national defence strategy to be prepared, which can act as a guideline to set targets for modernisation and capability enhancement needed to meet evolving threats.

“Since independence, Sri Lanka has had an inward-looking defence posture – an army and land force-heavy defence thinking. But today, to meet the evolving geostrategic environment, we need to balance that approach,” Jayarathna said, adding that Sri Lanka’s external security consciousness should see better synergy between the forces, and prioritisation tilted towards the Navy, Coast Guard, and Air Force, given that the country was an island dependent on international trade.

According to Jayarathna, while Sri Lanka maintains a large military force on paper, it is poorly equipped and lacks vital capabilities, technologies, and the capacity to maintain a heightened operational tempo needed to face emerging threats.

He points out that Sri Lanka has, throughout history, approached defence procurement on a crisis basis, which is significantly more costly and less ideal as there isn’t adequate time for testing and evaluation of systems and platforms for their role and task, and also reduces ability to build interoperability and standardisation between the forces.

“For example, the armed forces lack a serious plan on mobility. If we have increased mobility, we do not need a large manpower component to be based islandwide, as a smaller and more agile force can respond better and faster to any incident within Sri Lanka and its maritime domain,” he explained.

Jayarathna argues for Sri Lanka to prioritise defence expenditure on transforming the large, land-heavy military into a more balanced, professional, agile, and lethal force that can be both a deterrent and a security asset for regional stability.                                                      

Oversight and professionalism

According to national security specialist and former Head of the Institute of National Security Studies Prof. Rohan Gunaratna, under the MOD, Sri Lanka’s threat environment has been shaped by internal and external factors. 

“The threats emanated from overseas and the diaspora communities played a key role in either influencing the threats or were influenced by them. In addition to the ideology of ultra-Tamil nationalism, which sustained support for separatism, both the subversive left-wing ideologies and religious extremism came from overseas. Likewise, the threat of organised crime, especially narcotics, comes from overseas. Similarly, the geopolitics and foreign interference Sri Lanka is experiencing also come from overseas.”

Gunaratna advocates the creation of an oversight and national security policy formulation mechanism through an Office of the National Security Advisor, with a Cabinet-level National Security Advisor (NSA) and a robust National Security Act.

“To restore professionalism within the national security apparatus, Sri Lankan military, law enforcement, and intelligence leaders will have to go back to the drawing board. In addition to the security and intelligence community, the Foreign Service will have to learn the ABCs of national security. They will need to work together seamlessly in calibrating the responses of the State to the existing and emerging threats and to the looming threats and risks. After identifying and delineating the spectrum, the State should build the operational capabilities to respond to the immediate, short-, mid-, and long-term threats and risks,” Gunaratna opined.

He stressed that the State must understand that the contemporary threats to Sri Lanka stemmed from geopolitics and foreign interference, online falsehoods and manipulations, cybercrime, organised and serious crime, narcotics and substance abuse, religious exclusivism and extremism, separatism, and terrorism. Further, security challenges in the form of economic and financial security need to be addressed diligently while significant emphasis should also be given to environmental and ecological security and energy security.

Echoing the thoughts of Rear Adm. Jayarathna, Prof. Gunaratna stated: “Rather than continuing to invest considerable resources in maintaining the posture and capabilities developed to fight the LTTE and old threats, Sri Lanka should build an agile and flexible force. To build a better and a stronger Sri Lanka, the Government should not downsize but right-size the security force by integrating the Army, Navy, and Air Force to work together, building more specialised divisions to play a role in nation building, and transforming its archaic force raised to fight a terrorist insurgency into a modern force.”