Ananth Palakidnar in Daily News, 10 March 2024 … with highlighting emphasis being the work of the Editor Thuppahi
The Sri Lanka Air Force has chosen the city of Jaffna to include in its 73rd-anniversary celebration by organising an exhibition of the SLAF at the historic Muttraveli area around the Dutch Fort of Jaffna.
“Hats off” to SLAF Chief Air Marshal Udeni Rajapaksa, who would have been one of the “Dare Devil” pilots engaged in dealing with one of the deadliest militant organisations in the world, LTTE, for nearly four decades, towards selecting Jaffna to host the SLAF exhibition to mark its seven decades of success story.
It was from the mid-eighties, with the escalation of arms struggle in the North and East, that SLAF aircraft played a pivotal role in curtailing the militant activities as well as ensuring the essential supplies to the Armed Forces based in the Northern Province.
Reconnaissance purposes
The history of the Palaly Airport, which has now become an International Airport in Sri Lanka, dates back to the British period in the Island. The Palaly Airport was built during World War II. The British had chosen Palaly not only to expand their Royal Air Force activities on the Island but also for reconnaissance purposes to monitor enemy aircraft such as those from Japan from the Eastern area. Along with Palaly Airport in the North, the RAF had also established another Airport in Vavuniya to support its airborne activities in the Northern part of Sri Lanka.
The RAF aircraft used during World War II can now only be seen as exhibits in London and in Colombo. Whereas not only the RAF pilots but also the SLAF pilots consider Palaly Airport tarmac as one of the best in the world to land the aircraft as well as to take off. The reason is that the Palaly runway has been paved above limestone terrain and when an aircraft lands on the Palaly runway, the pilot could feel the smoothness of the landing.
Not only the SLAF pilots, even the Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots who were stationed in Palaly during the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) operations from 1987 to 1990 were also full of praise for the Palaly runways. So it could be very well said that it was appropriate to select Jaffna by Air Marshal Udeni Rajapaksa to conduct the SLAF’s 73rd-anniversary celebration themed “Wings of Friendship”.
On the other hand, apart from the significance of the Palaly Airport, the Jaffna skies also provided extensive exposure for different types of SLAF aircraft and for the Airmen who piloted them.
Ceremonial outfits
Until the North and East turbulent conditions kicked off in the mid-eighties, not only the SLAF but also other Armed Forces in the country remained as ceremonial outfits. It was only during the JVP insurgency in the early seventies that the Armed Forces in the Island were deployed to deal with the situation for a very brief period.
However, beginning right from the mid-eighties until the civil strife ended in May 2009, the expansion of Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces was significant with men and machinery.
The SLAF will have aerobatic displays to entertain the Jaffna people as part of their 73rd-anniversary celebration. However, it is interesting to note that Jaffna folk experienced deadly aerobatic displays when the SLAF fighter jets as well as bombers were all out to get rid of the LTTE hideouts. Therefore, when the SLAF aircraft were scaling the Northern skies to hit the enemy targets, the innocent civilians in the North, particularly in the Jaffna Peninsula, were building trenches and bunkers in their compounds to escape from the air raids. Some of the elderly people in Jaffna of that period, several of them were even Malayan pensioners, recollected their memories of hiding in trenches and bunkers when the Japanese air raids took place in the Malaysian skies during World War II.
Since the LTTE had occupied several well-built houses to house their cadres and to use those houses as their camps to store their weapons, ousting the occupants of those houses, voiceless innocent civilians who were living in the neighborhood of those makeshift LTTE hideouts either had to leave their houses and find safer places or had to make bunkers and trenches to escape from the air raids.
The SLAF has chosen the surrounding areas of the Jaffna Dutch Fort to stage its 73rd-anniversary celebration. Whereas, it was from the time the army had moved into the Jaffna fort in the mid-eighties, LTTE militants had surrounded the Fort area from all directions and continued the attack day and night to ensure that the soldiers were not stepping out of the Jaffna Fort.
The outfit placed even heavy long-range weapons to prevent the SLAF helicopters from bringing any form of supplies such as food as well as medicine along with arms and ammunition to the men trapped inside the Fort. Therefore, it was a terrible challenge for the Airmen to lower their flying machines right into the Jaffna Fort area to make available the supplies to the men trapped inside the Fort. So it was during this period Airmen faced an arduous challenge of ensuring the aerial supply route remained safe as well as keeping away from the heavy guns of the LTTE.
SLAF hangars
The SLAF’s role in overcoming the deadly challenges in the Northern skies was praiseworthy. So despite the terrific challenges, the vast blue skies of Jaffna also paved the way for the modernisation of the SLAF hangars with fighter jets such as Sciamachy aircraft from Argentina, Bell series helicopters from the United States of America, MI series helicopters and Antanov planes from Russia, Kfir jets from Israel and the SLAF even went to the extent of purchasing America’s huge C-130 Hercules for transportation purposes.
Several SLAF helicopters and aircraft along with a good number of die-hard pilots were shot down by the LTTE. The ruthless militant outfit even infiltrated the Air Force Base in Katunayake and did significant damage to the SLAF by destroying some of its aircraft.
However, the SLAF played its multifaceted role not only as a fighting force but also as a guardian angel of the Armed Forces from the skies, ensuring their supplies as well as transporting the injured and airlifting even the dead bodies of the fallen men in the battlefronts.
Therefore, despite the deadly challenges and the losses faced in the Northern skies, the SLAF accommodating Jaffna as part of its 73rd-anniversary celebration under the theme of “Wings of Friendship” highlights the broader outlook of the Air Chief Air Marshal Udeni Rajapakse and his men towards strengthening the country’s unity and integrity.
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ALSO NOTE
https://kdu.ac.lk/hall-of-fame/profiles/?name=AIR-MARSHAL-RAUP-RAJAPAKSA
Serge De Silva-Ranasinghe: “Sri Lanka’s Experience in Counter-Insurgency Warfare,” Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter, Oct. 2009, Vol. 35/8, pp. 40-46.
Serge De Silva-Ranasinghe: “Good Education. Sri Lankan Military learns Counter Insurgency Lessons,” Jane’s Intelligence Review Dec. 2009, pp. 3-7.
Michael Roberts: …. http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/tamil-person-and-state-essays/
Michael Roberts: ………………………………………….. http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/tamil-person-and-state-pictorial-images-listed/
Insult added to the injury