• Joint patrolling with CMF done in extreme secrecy

The Sri Lanka Navy vessel which was dispatched to patrol the troubled Western Indian Ocean waters off the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in great secrecy late last month has completed its maiden joint patrol and is returning to home port, The Sunday Morning reliably learns.  

Responding to a question by The Sunday Morning, Navy Spokesperson Capt. Gayan Wickramasuriya confirmed the vessel’s deployment, the completion of the patrol without incident, and that it was on its way back to the island. 

The Navy would not comment further on the matter, citing operational secrecy surrounding what is Sri Lanka’s first post-LTTE high seas deployment into harm’s way, where it may have met armed hostile elements. The Navy would also not comment on if and when the next patrol would take place.

The exact date the vessel was deployed and completed its patrol remains clouded in secrecy, with a senior defence official telling The Sunday Morning that such information, which was often available on open source platforms, were used by the Houthis to target specific ships with Anti-Ship Missiles (ASMs), ballistic rockets, and unmanned kamikaze drones. 

As such, many warships which have joined the many collaborations and collective patrol/escort programmes for commercial vessels plying the now high-risk Red Sea do not broadcast their locations and keep their electronic signature to a minimum to reduce the risk of attack.       

In early January (3), while addressing an awards ceremony in Colombo, President Ranil Wickremesinghe revealed that Sri Lanka would dispatch a Navy vessel to join the collective efforts to ensure security of the Red Sea region for shipping. 

This, following calls to a greater participation to protect vital lines of shipping which Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen had begun to attack in late 2023, in response to ongoing Israeli attacks into the Gaza Strip, which had drawn international condemnation, including that of Sri Lanka. 

Around 40 commercial vessels have been attacked by the Houthi rebels as of last week, since attacks began on 19 November 2023. The resulting crisis has caused significant disruption to global supply chains, increasing costs and pollution as commercial vessels try to use longer alternative routes to get to their destinations. 

As an island nation and a maritime hub, Sri Lanka is dependent on free and secure shipping to sustain its economy and is treaty-bound to ensure the safety and security of commercial trade at sea.

The Sri Lanka Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) (name withheld), which had been deployed under a veil of secrecy, with only a few senior defence and naval officials in the know, had carried out joint patrols under the banner of the Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150) of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF).

Sri Lanka became a partner of the CMF in November 2023, after trying to secure entry to the multinational maritime partnership for several years. The 41-member multinational partnership began in the early 2000s following concerns about piracy, terrorism, and maritime crime.

Prior to the vessel’s deployment, there was significant resistance in Sri Lanka against the move, citing the historic non-aligned posture of the island’s foreign policy and concerns over dragging Sri Lanka into what could escalate into a regional conflict.

However, given Sri Lanka’s dependence on uninterrupted maritime trade and its international obligations to rules-based order at sea, the deployment, which is largely symbolic, has been viewed as a positive move by some experts. 

The deployment also signals that the island nation is once again poised to play a bigger role in maritime security in the Indian Ocean region. Sri Lanka also recently took over the Chairpersonship of the Indian Ocean regional body – the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).