Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Army increasing strength of its Divisions

The Sri Lanka Army seems to have halted its plans to raise its 8th Offensive Division, the 63 Division. It is instead focusing on increasing the strength of the Brigades in each Division by significantly increasing the number of battalions in each of the already established Offensive Divisions.

The Army feels that this way, the already established Divisions will be capable of sustaining offensives for prolong periods of time by replenishing itself while deploying a significant amount of troops to guard newly captured areas from enemy infiltrations. This way all Divisions will be offensive and defensive at the same time. Forming Divisions for purely defensive duties will be avoided. The move is widely welcomed by defence analysts.

Currently, an SLA Army Division has around 7,000 men organized into 3 Brigades or 12 Battalions. Each Brigade has 4 Battalions each. With the rapid increase in recruitment, entire Battalions, comprising of around 750-800 men are being trained in major training bases in the island. Once they pass-out, the troops are organized into new Battalions.

The Maduru Oya Combat Training School can train upto 1,000 soldiers at a time in addition to some 800 Special Forces. The Basic Training for new recruits is four months long and has been completely restructured. Smaller camps like the one at Saliyapura can churn-out around 200 troops every four months.

Last Saturday, a contingent of 750 SLA troops passed-out from Maduru Oya. In May this year, 800 Airmen passed-out from the same school. Altogether around 1600 troops have passed-out from this school so far this year.

11 comments:

Prasanna D said...

thanks DW wire, I've been readin all you articles but this is my first comment...
Good luck with SLA

LKDOOD said...

thanks for the update DW

perein said...

Thanks DW.

"The Sri Lanka Army seems to have halted its plans to raise its 8th Offensive Division, the 63 Division. "

Sounds like a wise idea. So newbies can learn from more experience units.

perein said...

DW-
Below is from Defence.lk.
Do you please have any details?


LTTE terrorists launch abortive air raid at Trincomalee navy camp

LTTE terrorist have carried out an abortive air raid attempt at the naval base Trincomalee short while ago. According to the available information, the terror aircraft have dropped two improvised bombs and fled the area.

More information will follow.

LKDOOD said...

LTTE planes escaped again

this is not funny

air force needs to shoot them down

perein said...

This was on the card while we are getting closer day by day.
Surely they will try few more trips soon.

We should spot the Airbone /landing points. That will help the Airforce / Army etc.
It's a joint effort, Sooner bring these down will help rest of the run smoother.

Mango said...

Why do we classify divisions as 'offensive' and 'defensive'? Surely it can't be good to create a 'defensive' mindset. A division should be capable of anything, but primarily attacking and destroying the enemy. Anyway, it's good to see the 'defensive' category being dropped.

On the induction of new troops, how the Germans managed to keep their fighting effectiveness and unit cohesion intact until the end, in the face of total defeat, is very instructive. They ensured that replacements were allocated to existing combat units so that the veterans could induct the inexperienced troops. Hopefully something similar will be done by the SLA, as Perein mentioned above.

Unknown said...

NOW WOULD BE GOOD TIME FOR PUKA ABARAN TO FLEE!

Unknown said...

- I think now the falling tigers are now prevented from engaging targets in the south.


- They can in a snap get air borne and attack a very near and important target such as Trinco.

- We need the following units.
1. A dedicated unit observing happenings that opens windows to Puka Abaran et. al to flee the country. It should also have powers to requisition necessary resources to pursue and destroy such attempts.
2. Sufficient number of attack air craft that has minimal scramble time and are as much superior as possible with the first requirement intact. They should be stationed as nearer to the conflict areas so that they can intercept falling tiger craft engaging targets of more northern origin
3. Few zlins to regularly run sorties to give practise to current AA units.

TropicalStorm said...

DefenceWire;

'Passed-out" is like when I do too much of the Kentucky bourbon....
[Have you ever tries that stuff? You should.]

'Graduated' is the more accurate term to use. Trust that helps.

TropicalStorm said...

Thambala

Our Sia-Marchettis and K-8 are good enuff for the job you are refering to.

Now that the Tigers missed this strike, they can be thinking of one step ahead.

The gun fire which foiled their attack came from ground batteries.

So why not target the ships when they are out at sea, loaded with soldiers? A one-way suicide ride may be just the right job they are thinking of just about now..

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