Just two weeks after the controversy over the planes of US Air Force allegedly violating Lankan airspace, the Sri Lanka Air Force today said it would be conducting a joint air exercise with the US Air Force in Sri Lanka.

Air Force Commander Air Marshal Harsha Abeywickrama said that the exercise is the brainchild of the Pacific Air Command of the US Air Force. This type of combined multinational exercises are conducted the world over in view of enhancing interaction with regional Air Forces and exposing them to an international experience, he said.

This will be conducted at the SLAF Bases in Ratmalana and Ampara and SLAF Ampara. Field Training Exercise (FTX) is a combination of airdrops of various cargo loads using different types of parachutes and cargo. The other air forces that would participate in the exercise are the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Malaysian Air Force, and the Bangladesh Air Force.

 “This would be a golden opportunity for us as the SLAF and as a country to boost up competency of the operators as well as to build up mutual understanding between regional countries,” the Air Force Commander added.

“We can asses the capability of handling such disasters and emergency situations eventuality,” the Air Chief said.

Further he stated that carrying out recurrent training sessions of this nature would come in handy in the future, in case of disaster relief/humanitarian assistance operations within the region and could be complied as a doctrine in disaster relief operations.

The main objective is to provide humanitarian assistance in armed conflicts and natural disasters, to develop and expand combined air capabilities among Indo-Pacific nations to effectively deal with natural disasters in the region.

The exercise will be important to the SLAF to update the existing procedures of air delivery, asses the functional suitability of various equipment and suggest improvements and to ascertain the requirements of various equipment that may be useful for a future exercise of this nature.

The Command Post Exercise (CPX) CPX component will mainly focus on the planning aspect of the exercise.

Field Training Exercise (FTX) will focus mainly on practical and skills development aspects of the exercise by utilising 07, C-I30 A/Cs Hercules aircrafts. Three from US Air Force, one each from the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Malaysian Air Force, the Bangladesh Air Force and the SLAF. More than 200 airmen that of foreign participants and 150 SLAF airmen will participate in the exercise.

The partners are from 20 countries will be: Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, United States of America and Vietnam. (Supun Dias)