• SLA plans to focus on quality over quantity by 2030
• Inclusion of technology and advanced capabilities will allow effective transformation
• Women’s role to be expanded, and SLA seeks to broaden Peacekeeping contribution

The Sri Lanka Army (SLA), established in post-colonial Ceylon in 1949, celebrates its 75th anniversary today (10) as the force moves through a transitional period.

The Army traces its structure to its colonial origins tracing back to the 1860’s, and operational deployments to the Boer Wars in Africa, and service alongside British and Commonwealth forces during the First and Second World Wars. The post-Independence period saw the Army partially demobilised and limited to barracks briefly, with the force being deployed for disaster response, public order management, counter insurgency and counter-terrorism operations, which only ended with the guns being silenced in May 2009. While there are many differing opinions about the Sri Lanka Army, as is of many militaries across the world, there is little doubt that the SLA have proven themselves to be a battle-tested counterinsurgency and counter-terrorist force, while remaining a vital component of the State.  

Today, the land forces arm of the Sri Lankan military is evolving to become a ‘leaner but effective force structure’ and charting a course to be better geared to face a diverse and dynamic threat spectrum while remaining an effective deterrent, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) told The Daily Morning. This is a transition which has occurred in many countries, post conflict. Militaries like every other branch of governance, must evolve to remain effective and ‘fit for task’.

With concerns about high defence expenditure over a prolonged post-war period, Sri Lanka in the recent past initiated a programme to ‘right size’ the armed forces to, aimed at a transition to a new force structure around 2030–2035.

When asked, what will the Sri Lanka Army look like in 2035? Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Vikum Liyanage told The Daily Morning: “The Sri Lanka Army is looking forward to a leaner but effective force structure. Future battlefield will be defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. There will be a 360-degree threat and challenges will be multifaceted. Physical boundaries will be blurred, and identification of friend or foe will be increasingly difficult. Technological advancements and the paradigm shift in the information domain will play a big role in future conflicts. Appositely, the military force structuring should take into account; swiftness, precision, and efficiency in all aspects such as threat analysis, forecasting, decision making, deployments, and responses to threats and challenges. Accordingly, we are focusing on sophistication and skills development. Our effectiveness will be achieved through modernisation and adaptation. By 2035 the Army will be technically advanced and ready to counter any conventional and nonconventional threat. Also, troops will be ready to respond to the dynamic threat profile”.  

When asked about the future threats the SLA was concerned about, Gen. Liyanage opined that: “Contemporary threats and challenges are transnational. Any such occurrence in the region and even anywhere in the globe will impact Sri Lanka as well.” He went on to explained that the perceived threats and challenges for the near term include but are not limited to; rise of violent extremism, economic insecurity, separatist ideologies and sentiments, religious disharmony and polarisation, racism, cyber security and crime, growth of armed non-state actors in the Indian Ocean region, climate change-linked adverse weather incidents and national disasters, social unrest, food and energy security, external influence and information warfare campaigns, unemployment-related issues, and issues linked transnational and organised crime.

Charting the way forward

The SLA has provided their input and recommendations to formulate the ‘Defence Review 2023’ which was compiled by the previous Government, with the report submitted to the political leadership, it is learnt.

According to several senior staff officers of the SLA The Daily Morning spoke to, the armed forces had held stakeholder consultations and formulated a threat outlook which had been used to draft their recommendations. “There was a national defence review committee appointed and they were tasked with compiling a review of the future role and task, posture and force structure should be. A comprehensive study was done, and a threat spectrum was identified, and a report was formulated,” a senior officer said. According to them, the initial plan had been made for a target of 2030, and the SLA is following the plan. “Security and stability are paramount for Sri Lanka. The future SLA must be geared to deal with a wide range of threats. This is why we want to evolve the SLA into a professional, well trained and equipped force that is agile and effective. We must be an effective deterrent, while being well tuned to address a range of asymmetric threats from almost every domain,” a senior staff officer said.

When asked how the SLA plans to train future soldiers and officers, Commander Liyanage said: “The ultimate aim of training is to ensure military success. Training provides the means to practise, develop and validate within constraints, the practical application of a doctrine. Similarly, it provides the basis for commanders and staff to exercise command and control. With consideration of the existing and future threats indicated earlier, our training doctrines and related publications will be updated, and they will provide the conceptual foundation for our troops in the future. Accordingly, our training curriculum and modules will be changed. Any professional military will base its training on conventional perceptions upon which basic training will be conducted. This will allow them to be versatile and would allow them to adapt when necessary.  However, emerging unconventional threats and challenges will be the main focus of advanced training modules. One of our priorities is to ensure a multi-skilled soldier, who could quickly adapt, be resilient and technologically versatile”.

It is learned that the SLA of 2030-35 is envisaged to be a well-trained and capable force, equipped with modern equipment and technology. “The fighting power will not only depend on the number of troops, with modernisation and quality of the well-trained personnel in our ranks, we will be a formidable force and have deterrent capabilities. Although numerically smaller that the SLA of before, by 2030-35 the SLA will be highly mobile, more lethal, and better synergised with the Air Force, Navy and other agencies to be effective. Mobility, combat capacity, improved intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capacity is paramount to achieve this transition. While quantity has a quality of its own, we want to shift to a force structure where we prioritise quality over quantity,” a senior staff officer opined, adding that in the future, the SLA will seek to recruit a more qualified and capable cadre.

However, it is learnt that the SLA is facing challenges in recruiting to the force, and maintaining hard earned competencies, due to many experienced personnel leaving the force. This is not a situation unique to Sri Lanka, but to other militaries worldwide. Britain, Australia, Germany, the United States and other nations have faced challenges in recruiting personnel for their organisations.

“We are considering different volunteer service models to address the recruitment and retention issues. The United States, Israel, United Kingdom and India. So, under the proposed scheme, we will have a trained volunteer cadre, who remains in the civilian workforce and is mobilised when necessary to become a force multiplier. Their training will not be any lesser than the regular cadre and will be periodically called up for re-training aimed at skill retention and unit cohesion. This is being done in other countries as well. A well-trained reserve force is vital for us,” a senior officer told The Daily Morning. It is learnt that the SLA plans to broaden the roles which women soldiers and officers can carry out in the force in the future.

The SLA acknowledged that there are challenges in recruiting to the reserves, as those who have fixed employment outside the military are reluctant to commit their time for periodic training, and military engagements which are the norm of a reserve force. The SLA also plans to overhaul their personnel training system, to train future combatants to be more multi-disciplined – and be able to have multiple specialisations. A greater emphasis on Special Operational Forces (SOFs), combined support arms, intelligence and cyber warfare will be implemented, it is learnt.

While a future SLA will be leaner, for it to remain effective, there will need to be significant investment in the force, which should be carried out in a well-planned and smart manner. Over the last 40 years, the SLA has evolved with ad-hoc wartime decision-making, and change has always come under-fire. Given the opportunity to effect change in a more orderly and planned manner, the SLA plans to evolve the force through the proposed Defence Review 2030. However, for such evolution to work, Sri Lanka’s economic climate must also improve, providing the necessary capacity to fund such an evolution, a task the current and future Governments will have to address.

Moving away from non-combat task

Several senior staff officers opined that the SLA has committed personnel for non-military tasks, as per the requirement of the State. They were of the view that the force should return to its classic role, while being flexible enough to ‘step in when needed’ to assist, provide humanitarian assistance and or support the State apparatus through typical ‘aid to civilian authorities’ type operations. “If we can reduce the carder that has been deployed for non-classic role tasks, we can reduce overheads and be a leaner force,” one officer opined.

Force structure

The future force structure of the SLA will be reorganised to a more mobile force, with strong rapid reaction force capability. Multiple divisions and brigades which were understrength for years, will likely be amalgamated to fit a ‘right-sized’ force structure which will allow better command and control and allows the force to be more agile. “We need to modernise our fleet (vehicles), and that will gradually happen. We do not envisage Sri Lanka to face a conventional military threat from a near-peer actor, or another country in the short to medium term. As such, our posture will be one geared to face asymmetric threats while maintaining a deterrent effect,” a staff officer opined. The SLA is also considering an overhaul of its small arms system, with a possible shift of the primary rifle calibre envisaged by 2030. The SLA also plans to streamline certain equipment, vehicles and kit, bringing commonality and standardisation to improve efficiency and reduce operational and maintenance cost.

Peacekeeping and military diplomacy

According to the Commander of the SLA, the force is steadfast on its plans to build on its successes in contributing to United Nations Peacekeeping missions. The SLA also plans to seek deployment options for female soldiers and officers for UN missions.

When asked if the SLA plans to improve its military–diplomacy capacity in the future, Gen. Liyanage said: “Yes, the military is one of the key tools available for a State to exercise its diplomacy. In a world which is defined by a range of competition, the military could maintain deterrence while projecting both soft and hard power options, which the State can employ as tools”.

The Army commander also pointed out that the SLA has proposed to improve participation in foreign military exercises and training in line with Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, while also increasing the number of Defence Attachés to key Sri Lankan foreign missions to improve security and defence relationships with other countries. He also advocated for greater participation in United Nations Peacekeeping missions and to have a ‘ready team’ able to respond to natural disaster situations in the region by providing Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) support for Sri Lanka’s neighbourhood. Liyanage also pointed out that the SLA and Sri Lanka will benefit from engaging in bilateral and regional defence and security forums and contributing to academic and policy dialogs.