Sri Lanka’s plan to downsize military Tri-forces halt general recruitment

• Sri Lanka Army reduces cadre to nearly 150,000

By Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya   

Sri Lanka is in the process of downsizing the existing Sri Lanka Army cadre to 135,000 by the end of this year, and the number has already dropped to nearly 150,000 from the existing Sri Lanka Army cadre of 200,783, Daily Mirror learns.   

Last year, State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon announced that Sri Lanka would cut the number of Army personnel by a third to 135,000 by this year and to 100,000 by 2030, as part of the government’s efforts to overhaul its finances. He said that the aim of the move is to create a “technically and tactically sound and well-balanced” defence force by 2030.   

In addition, Sri Lanka expects to maintain the number of Sri Lanka Air Force personnel and Sri Lanka Navy personnel at 35,000 each by 2030.   

Sources said that the Sri Lanka Army has halted general recruitment and is recruiting only for essential units with approval from the Ministry of Defence. This has led to a reduction of around 35,000 Army personnel within a few months.   

Meanwhile, Air Force Spokesperson Group Captain Dushan Wijesinghe said that the current physical strength of the Sri Lanka Air Force is below 30,000.   
“The Sri Lanka Air Force had around 35,000 personnel, and it has dropped to around 27,000 by now. We have recruited around 2,000 persons for several projects as volunteers, who were also among this figure. We have not totally stopped our recruitment but minimized it. Whenever we need recruitment to maintain our services, we make those recruitments under the approval of the MoD and the Treasury,” he said.   

Meanwhile, Navy Spokesman Capt. Gayan Wickramasinghe said that the Sri Lanka Navy’s current physical strength is about 40,000.   

“We continue our recruitment because without recruitment we can’t operate. There is a difference between the retiring number and the recruitment number. The number will reduce according to that. We have plans on how we maintain our cadre, and our recruiting is done accordingly,” he said.   

Sri Lanka is a country that occasionally experiences strikes in several sectors, including health, electricity, and ports. The tri-forces have been deployed whenever there was a strike to ensure that those sectors operate smoothly in the country despite the strike.   

In a recent incident, more than 1,000 soldiers have been deployed in state run hospitals to assist medical authorities to maintain services after health workers resumed a strike yesterday morning.   

However, with discussions and plans in place to downsize the Sri Lanka military by 2030, authorities will not be able to deploy members of the tri-forces to engage in multitasking as they are busy with regular duties.