Guwahati: On the occasion of its 76th Independence Day, India will provide free maritime surveillance aircraft Dornier 228 to Sri Lanka for two years.
The plane is being offered for a two-year interim period until Sri Lanka’s plane, which is being made in India, is ready.
The plane is a response to the discussion between India and Sri Lanka that took place on January 9, 2018, in New Delhi, during which the Sri Lankan government asked if it may be possible to buy two Dornier reconnaissance aircraft from India.
Today is the ceremonial handover of the Dornier aircraft. The Indian High Commission in Colombo has announced that Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay will attend the function.
Also, in Sri Lanka for the transfer of a Dornier maritime patrol aircraft to the Sri Lankan military is Vice Chief Vice Admiral Satish N Ghormade of the Indian Navy.
Notably, India turned up the Dornier aircraft a day before the Chinese ship “Yuan Wang 5” was scheduled to spend a week at the southern port of Hambantota.
The Chinese ship “Yuan Wang-5,” which is commonly thought to be a spy ship, has been given permission to dock at Hambantota Port on August 16, according to Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Minister.
The 250 km away Hambantota port was constructed using high-interest Chinese loans. The port was given to the Chinese on a 99-year lease when the Sri Lankan government struggled to pay back the debt it had borrowed from China.
Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement, “Having considered all material in place, on 13 August 2022, the clearance to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China was conveyed for the deferred arrival of the vessel from 16-22 August 2022,” The Indian Naval Dornier (INDO – 228) is basically a Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL), multirole light transport aircraft used by the Indian Navy for electronic warfare missions, maritime surveillance, disaster relief and other work with a turboprop twin-engine, produced since 1981.
The Sri Lankan Air Force plans to efficiently use the Dornier aircraft specifically to conduct maritime and coastal surveillance operations within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), search and rescue operations (SAR), casualty evacuation (CASEVAC), and maritime pollution monitoring and control within Sri Lankan Search and Rescue Region (SRR), in order to realise the SLAF’s ultimate vision of “Ensuring the National Security through Effective Employment of Airpower” within Sri Lankan Airspace.
The 75th anniversary of India’s Independence Day was celebrated in Colombo this morning by Indian High Commissioner, Gopal Baglay.