Research underway to enhance technique capabilities to improve air power

The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) which demonstrates its air power and commitment to ensure national security of the country, has now stepped out to save the country a huge amount of foreign exchange spent on aircraft repairs and maintenance, in the backdrop of the current economic and forex crisis in the country   

The SLAF has many types of aircraft in its inventory to carry out troop and cargo transportation, surveillance, VIP/VVIP transportation, flying training and combat missions.  
Annually the government is spending millions of US dollars on repairs and maintenance of aircraft as SLAF needs to maintain its aircraft capability to maintain the national security and also to assist the general public when there were emergency situations such as floods and landslides.  

Many aircraft of the SLAF fleet consists with aircraft purchased from China. However, every aircraft has to be maintained, repaired and overhauled after its recommended flight time.   
The SLAF is currently equipped with two special facilities at SLAF Base Katunayake which have technical equipment and its own technicians to handle the repair work and overhaul of Chinese origin aircraft and US origin Bell aircraft.  

The Aircraft Overhaul Wing (AOW)

The Aircraft Overhaul Wing (AOW) of the SLAF was established at the beginning of the year 2016 with the technical assistance of China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC).   
Initially the Chinese specialist assisted and guided the SLAF in establishing the facilities and in the first few overhauls. The facility was established with an investment of USD 40 million with all the tech equipment.  
The AOW has been responsible for the overhaul of many Chinese aircraft including Y-12, PT-6, K-8, F-7 BS and F-7 GS aircraft over the past five years.  

Group Captain Indika Wickramasinghe who is the Commanding Officer of the AOW said that to date, the SLAF was able to completely overhaul 12 aircraft, six PT-6, three Y-12, two F-7 and a K-8 aircraft. He said the technicians are currently working on overhauling seven more aircraft.   
He said it would have cost US $ 18.9 million to overhaul the 12 aircraft overseas. However, Group Captain Wickramasinghe said by overhauling those aircraft in Sri Lanka, the SLAF has saved the country USD 12.9 million in foreign reserves.  

“If those aircraft were to be sent to China for maintenance, it takes at least two to three years for the overhaul process. However, the SLAF had been able to save not only the millions in foreign exchange, but also the aircraft grounding time. It usually only takes six to eight months to completely overhaul an aircraft in Sri Lanka,” he said.   
He said the technicians are currently working on extension of life of one of the grounded Y-12 aircraft.   
The concept of Technology transfer is a common practice in most countries where foreign origin aircraft are inducted and used over a period of time. The practice permits the user nation to ensure longevity of the platforms that they acquire without having to rely on foreign assistance and having to dispatch aircraft overseas at great expense in terms of both money and time.   

“This is the first time that such overhaul capability tech was given to Sri Lanka. Usually such technology had been given only to the countries which have large numbers of aircraft fleet. We, as a small country are very fortunate to have such technique and facility. This technology and test equipment also could be used to overhaul components in other aircraft as well. We are working and researching to develop our capabilities. This facility is specialising in repair and overhaul of aircraft electrical wiring harnesses, pipeline and wheel repairs of any aircraft,” he said.   
Until 2016, all repairs, including aircraft maintenance, was done by sending the aircraft to China. Now, we only import the necessary raw materials and parts recommended by the manufacturer and we have more than 100 trained and qualified technicians in our Wing, the Commanding Officer said.  

“We make sure that there is no human error in what we do. We cannot make an aircraft overhaul in a hurry. It takes some time. We have brought this aircraft to Sri Lanka with a capital investment for the national security. The SLAF has managed to increase its aircraft availability in the country by overhauling these aircraft in Sri Lanka,” he said.  
If an F-7 aircraft was overhauled overseas, it would have cost more than USD 5.5 million. However, the Group Captain Wickramasinghe said that the overhaul of such F-7 in Sri Lanka cost only USD 1.8 million for spare parts.  

Aircraft Engineering Wing (AEW)

The Aircraft Engineering Wing (AEW) at the SLAF Base Katunayake is the largest Engineering Wing at the Sri Lanka Air Force which is also equipped with technology to completely repair and overhaul  Bell 212/412 helicopters. This Wing was established in January 1979.  
The Commanding Officer of the AEW Air Commodore Gihan Seneviratne said that the Engineering Wing was not something that came when the forex crisis happened. “We have been doing this all along and saving large amounts of foreign revenue,” he said.  

He said this wing specialized in battle damage repairs and recovery of aircraft especially during the war.  
The AEW is also capable of complete rebuilding of Bell 212/412 helicopters, heavy maintenance of turbine engines, component overhaul of rotor wing aircraft, complete repair and overhaul of Bell 212 Transmission, overhaul and repair of aircraft instruments, ground running and testing of J-79 ( Kfir ) engine, helicopter Rotor Blades repairs, aircraft weight and balance and maintenance of safety equipment.  
Since 2018 to 2021, the AEW has performed over 19,000 repairs and maintenance and saved USD 16 million revenue to the country.   

The Air Commodore said that the AEW is doing all repairs and maintenance of aircraft as recommended by the Original equipment manufacturer (OEM). “Aircraft components are very expensive and we have to over design everything for the safety. If something happened in the air we cannot do anything,” he said.  
He said some of the aircraft has no limit in its life and that they use those aircraft for operations by complete overhaul time to time.   

Meanwhile, Commander of the Air Force Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana said the SLAF expects to further develop its facility to repair any kind of aircraft in their fleet.  
He said that only the aircraft required to maintain national security and other essential operations were being maintained in their Wings to save forex reserves in the country.  
The Commander said that SLAF has already been able to secure a large amount of foreign revenue by repairing its aircraft in Sri Lanka.  

The Sri Lanka Air Force is not only saving a large amount of foreign revenue by repairs and overhaul of aircraft, but also earning millions of US dollars by deploying aviation units under the UN Mission in the Central African Republic.  
The Commander said that the Sri Lanka Air Force was able to earn around USD 110 million in foreign revenue since 2014 for the government, from SLAF’s deployment under the UN Mission.