The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF; Sinhala: ශ්රි ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදාව, romanised: Śrī Laṃkā guwan hamudāva; Tamil: இலங்கை விமானப்படை, romanised: Ilaṅkai vimāṉappaṭai) is the air arm and the youngest of the three components of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. It was founded in 1951 as the Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) with the assistance of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The SLAF played a major role throughout the Sri Lankan Civil War. The SLAF operates more than 160 aircraft.
The Commander of the Air Force is the professional head of the Sri Lanka Air Force who holds the rank of Air Marshal.
The mission statement of the Sri Lanka Air Force is To achieve professional excellence in rapid mobility and precision engagement by developing core capabilities based on technological superiority, to ensure operational readiness and success in exploiting the competent human resources and equipment of the Sri Lanka Air Force
The Vision of the Sri Lanka Air Force is To be a well accomplished, resolute, and ingenious airpower capable of fulfilling the aspirations of the nation and preserving the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the island
Although Ceylonese had served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Government of Ceylon adopted the No. 102 Squadron RAF, no air units were formed as part of the Ceylon Defence Force. The newly established Dominion of Ceylon, under its first Prime Minister, D. S. Senanayake began establishing its armed forces. The need for an air force was identified in its defence policy and the Air Force Act was passed in parliament in 1951 in order to establish an air force for the new nation.
As such the Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) was formed on 2 March 1951 with RAF officers and other personnel seconded to the RCyAF. Ceylonese were recruited to the new RCyAF and several Ceylonese who had served with the RAF during World War II were absorbed in the force. Initial objective was to train local pilots and ground crew with early administration and training carried out exclusively by RAF officers and other personnel on secondment. The first aircraft of the RCyAF were de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks used as basic trainers to train the first batches of pilots locally while several cadets were sent to Royal Air Force College Cranwell. These were followed by Boulton Paul Balliol T.Mk.2s and Airspeed Oxford Mk.1s for advanced training of pilots and aircrew along with de Havilland Doves and de Havilland Herons for transport use, all provided by the British Government. By 1955, the RCyAF was operating two flying squadrons based at RAF Negombo, with one focused on training and the other on transport. The first helicopter type to be added to the service was the Westland Dragonfly.
After Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's negotiated the closure of British air and naval bases in Ceylon in 1956, the RCyAF took over the former RAF stations; Katunayake and China Bay, becoming RCyAF operational stations while ancillary functions were carried out at Diyatalawa and Ekala. The RCyAF Regiment Squadron was formed in 1956. The RAF headquarters, Air HQ Ceylon, was disbanded on 1 November 1957. However RAF officers remained with the RCyAF until 1962. This led to increased responsibility for the fledgling RCyAF as the RAF withdrew its aircraft and personal, leaving air defence solely the responsibility of the Ceylon Artillery since the RCyAF did not have fighters to take over void left by the RAF withdrawal. The Government of Ceylon maintained friendly relations with neighbouring countries such as India, perceived the risk of air intrusion low. However, approval had been granted to introduced fighter capability to the RCyAF. In 1959 de Havilland Vampire jet aircraft were acquired. However, the RCyAF did not put them into operational use and soon replaced them with five Hunting Jet Provosts obtained from the British, which were formed into a new Jet Squadron. Seven more Provosts followed. Defence expenditure was cut drastically in the early 1960s as a result of both foreign exchange crisis and an attempt military coup in 1962. The RAF officer commanding the RCyAF was replaced by the first Ceylonese commander Air Commodore Rohan Amerasekera. The RCyAF did receive a few aircraft in the 1960s, most notably American Bell JetRanger helicopters and by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HAL-26 Pushpak given by India. The force had grown gradually during its early years, reaching a little over 1,000 officers and recruits in the 1960s. By 1970 the Provosts were in storage.
The Royal Ceylon Air Force first went into combat in April 1971 when the Marxist JVP launched an island-wide insurrection on April 5. The Ceylon Armed Forces were caught off guard; police stations island-wide and the RCyAF base at Ekala were attacked in the initial wave. Responding rapidly the RCyAF deployed its limited aircraft, at first to resupply besieged police stations, military outposts and patrol around major cities. The Jet Provosts were taken out of storage and put into service within three days, carrying out attacks on insurgents. Its transports began ferrying troops and cargo cross the island. During this insurgency the left-leaning Bandaranaike government turned to friendly nations for weapons and ammunitions. The RAF's heavy transports also flew in six Bell 47G helicopters purchased from the United States, which were put into combat as soon as possible after only five days of pilot training. It received five Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F fighter bombers and a MiG-15 UTI trainer, as well as two Kamov Ka-26 helicopters meant for search and rescue and casualty evacuation from the Soviet Union. Air Force personnel joined in ground operations, and when the insurgents surrendered after about a month's fighting the RCyAF was in charge of three of the many rehabilitation camps setup for insurgents. In the wake of the insurrection the RCyAF established a Volunteer Force to supplement its regular carder.
With Ceylon becoming a republic in 1972, the Royal Ceylon Air Force changed its name to the Sri Lanka Air Force along with all insignia. Because of a shortage of funds for military expenditure in the wake of the 1971 insurrection, the No. 4 Helicopter Squadron began operating commercial transport services for foreign tourists under the name of Helitours. On March 31, 1976, the SLAF was awarded the President's Colour. That same year SLAF detachments, which later became SLAF stations, were established at Wirawila, Vavuniya and Minneriya.
With the closure of Air Ceylon in 1978, its Hawker Siddeley HS 748 transport aircraft was taken over by the SLAF. By the early 1980s the Provosts and all of the Soviet aircraft had been taken out of active service and placed in long-term storage, leaving the air force without any fighter/bomber capability.
Rapid growth began in the mid-1980s, when the Sri Lankan Civil War against LTTE drew the service into a major, long-term security role. In 1982 the SLAF reactivated airfields at Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Koggala and Sigiriya that had been disused since World War II, all later becoming SLAF Stations. During the First Eelam War between 1983 and 1987, the force grew by nearly 50 percent. In 1987 the air force had a total strength of 3,700 personnel, including active reserves. The Sri Lanka Air Force Regiment took over to role of ground based air defence from the 4th Regiment, Sri Lanka Artillery transitioned into a field artillery role as it decommissioned its anti-aircraft guns. As in the other services, a shortage of spare parts plagued maintenance efforts, forcing the service to send a number of aircraft to Singapore and elsewhere for repairs. After the purchase of equipment from Canada in 1986, the air force gained the capability to make structural repairs on its fleet of Bell helicopters, several of which had been damaged in operations against the Tamil separatists. Maintenance of electronic equipment was performed at the communications station at Ekala, in the north of Colombo District.