The LTTE, a little while ago attempted to attack the Jetliner troop transport ferry in Trincomalee today. Two gravity bombs were dropped near a Navy Billet injuring a few Naval ratings.
One of the two bombs had exploded. The 'Tiger Air Force' planes had come from the direction of the sea, flying very low, Naval sources indicated. The Jetliner transports large numbers of troops from Trincomalee and back on some nights.
Anti-aircraft guns from the town and China bay had engaged the planes unsuccessfully in pitch dark but had managed to force them away. The Tiger pilots seem to have found it difficult to locate their target.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
TAF misses again, so does SLDF
Posted by Defencewire at 10:19 PM 129 comments
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.
Posted by Defencewire at 9:35 PM 11 comments