ESTABLISHING A MARITIME AIR WING IN SRI LANKA NAVY: AN ANALYSIS ON OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

Ocean is a vital domain for an island nation like Sri Lanka. It is important to many economic activities and more important for national security. As a coastal nation it is obvious that Sri Lanka is facing both traditional and non-traditional security threats in the maritime domain. To ensure the national security, Sri Lanka Navy has been tirelessly working to ensure maritime security of the country. Not only the maritime security, as a coastal nation, Sri Lanka is responsible of other aspects such as Search and Rescue, Maritime Disaster Response and Preventing Maritime Pollution. Air Power in maritime domain is a critical capability in present context to face many of these challenges. However, Sri Lanka has hardly exploited the air dimension of maritime domain. This study emphasizes the requirement of a maritime air wing for the Sri Lanka Navy and identifies the role that maritime air wing should perform, opportunities that it provides and challenges of establishing a maritime air wing through a quantitative and qualitative analysis. The study focused on the research questions, What are the key opportunities and challenges in establishing a maritime air wing within the Sri Lanka Navy, and what are the roles it could play in enhancing national maritime security? The final outcomes are being further discussed and in conclusion, identifies in which roles that maritime air wing should focus on. Finally, this research recommends ‘Duo Approach’ for the future development of a maritime air wing for Sri Lanka Navy.