There has been a lot of debate in recent times over the size of Sri Lanka’s military, which was expanded to fight a war with one of the world’s most ruthless terrorist groups. Having achieved that objective over 15 years ago, Sri Lanka’s Security Forces now find themselves in peacetime, in a world that is somewhat, if not vastly, different from that of 2009.
Our defence budget is still very high partly because we are having an expanded military and partly because we are still paying back loans and interest for some of the defence purchases made prior to 2009. In this context, there is hardly any doubt that the number of active duty personnel in Sri Lanka’s Tri Forces, especially in the Army, has to be reduced in peacetime. While we refrain from giving exact troop numbers in these columns, it is a fact that countries much bigger than Sri Lanka have smaller armies. It is also worth noting that most countries rely heavily on their reservists if a conflict arises, whilst having only a few thousand active duty or permanent soldiers. This reduces costs vastly in peacetime.
Defence experts have to arrive at a middle ground to determine the number of personnel that would be adequate to meet the current defence needs. As the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks demonstrated, transnational terrorism poses a real threat to all countries. The quick mobilisation of the Tri-Forces during that horrific incident, perhaps, averted further violence, though the authorities have to investigate the intelligence failures that let it happen in the first place. Just last month, four ISIS terrorists of Sri Lankan origin were arrested in India, which means that the ISIS threat to South Asia still persists.
Quite apart from these developments, the whole security environment has changed, with factors such as transnational crime, cybercrime, human trafficking and smuggling, drug trafficking, gun-running and sea piracy coming into play. It is vital that we address these issues by deploying the maximum level of resources at our disposal, mainly because Sri Lanka is an island with a huge coastline and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that is 23 times bigger than the country’s landmass.
This is where the importance of intelligence, rather than troop numbers per se, comes into play. Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) has become a vital component of Armies, Navies and Air Forces around the world. ISR is even more crucial for island nations such as Sri Lanka. ISR is defined as the coordinated acquisition, processing, and dissemination of accurate, relevant, and timely information and intelligence to support the Security Forces’ decision-making process.
ISR systems can collect information from a wide range of sources, including electronic communications, optical, radar, and infrared imaging. Some of the assets used to collect this data include satellites, sensors, drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), aviation systems, specialised ground, sea or space-based equipment, and human intelligence teams. In fact, the latter, also called HUMINT, cannot be dismissed even with the availability of all these technologies.
This is why most Security Forces now prioritise ISR over the “boots on the ground” approach. Proper intelligence gathering is essential to deal with all of these scenarios and threats. UAVs and drones are even more effective in terms of Surveillance and Reconnaissance because they can remain in the air on a single tank of fuel for over 24 years, looking at the ground or the sea with their all-seeing cameras which are much more sensitive than the human eye.
There is still a role for so-called AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control System) aircraft such as the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail, but human operators get tired over several hours and the costs (purchase price, fuel, and payments for personnel) are also much higher for these manned aircraft.
The Security Forces in developed countries are also moving towards unmanned ocean vessels including remote-controlled submarines and submersibles or ROVs. While some of the surveillance drones are really expensive at present, prices are dropping and defence manufacturers in the Global South have also jumped on the drone bandwagon, making them much cheaper than the Western equipment.
It is also time for Sri Lanka’s Security Forces to focus on Search and Rescue (SAR) in a bigger way, now that defence imperatives have less intensity. They coped admirably with the twin disasters of the MT New Diamond and X-Press Pearl ships on the high seas around Sri Lanka. But they do need newer machines to do a better SAR job. For example, the Sri Lanka Air Force could be in charge of the proposed islandwide Air Ambulance Helicopter service. This will not only make the transport of accident victims (and other medical emergency cases) faster, but also expedite the transport of fresh organs for transplant in case there are deceased young accident victims. This sounds crude on paper, but it is the stark reality – the faster the recipient gets the organ, the greater the chance of recovery.
It is important to maintain and uplift the morale of all members of the Tri Forces, while recognising the newly emerging threats and deploying them accordingly. Indeed, the traditional roles of the Tri-Forces are getting blurred, as they all need to be active on land, air and sea to face threats such as drug trafficking. The problems faced by war veterans should also be addressed, lest they fall into the hands of recruiters for foreign wars, as witnessed recently. At the end of the day, any changes to the Tri Forces should not be considered on the cost factor alone, and all operational dynamics and new security scenarios must be assessed beforehand.
