Ministry of Defence (Sri Lanka)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Military of Sri Lanka

Service branches	Sri Lanka Army Sri Lanka Navy Sri Lanka Air Force
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	President Mahinda Rajapakse
Minister of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order	President Mahinda Rajapakse
Chief of the Defence Staff	Air Chief Marshal Donald Perera
Military age	18-49 years of age (2001)
Available for military service	4,933,217 (2005 est.) males, age 15–49, 5,153,597 females, age 15–49
Fit for military service	3,789,627 males, age 15–49, 4,281,043 females, age 15–49
Reaching military age annually	Males: 174,049 Females: 167,201 (2005 est.)
Active personnel	157,900 (ranked 35th)
Reserve personnel	50,000 volunteer reserve
Expenditures
Budget	FY 2004 - ranked 74th US $ 514.8 million (2004 est.)
Percent of GDP	2.6% (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Sri Lanka

President Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake Cabinet Parliament Speaker Leader of the Opposition Political parties Sri Lanka leftist parties Elections Provinces Districts Divisions Civil war Foreign relations
Other countries · Atlas Politics Portal view • talk • edit

Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order is responsible for the formulation, co-ordination and the execution of policies in relation to the security of the country. Its mission is the formulation and execution of strategies with regard to defence and safeguarding territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

The Ministry of Defence is the Sri Lankan government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and the headquarters of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.

The Ministry of Defence states that its principal objectives are the formulation, co-ordination and the execution of policies in relation to the security of the country. With the end of the Cold War the MOD does not foresee any short-term conventional military threat, at present the main threat to Sri Lanka is from internal terrorism(LTTE). The Ministry of Defence also manages day to day running of the armed forces, contingency planning and defence procurement.

1 History
2 Senior officials
3 Objectives
4 Key Functions
5 Departments that come under the Ministry of Defence
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

With Ceylon gaining independence in 1948, the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs was formed to administer the country's armed forces and formulate defense and foreign policy. The Prime Minister was also the Minister of Defence and External Affairs, and was supported by a Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and External Affairs who was a member of Parliament. Following the adapting of the new constitution in 1978, two separate ministries, the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were formed. Since then many presidents retained the portfolio of Minister of Defence under him/her self, except for a few brief periods.

[edit] Senior officials

The President of Sri Lanka His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse is the Minister of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order

Deputy Minister —Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake MP
Permanent Secretary of Defence — Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) Gotabhaya Rajapaksa GR
Chief of the Defence Staff — Air Chief Marshal Donald Perera VSV, USP, ndc, psc, SLAF

[edit] Objectives

Maintenance of internal security and defence of Sri Lanka.
Implementation and maintenance of the Prevention of terrorism Act No. 48 of 1979 as amended by the Act No. 10 of 1982.
Maintenance of the Commonwealth War Memorials and the War Graves, on behalf of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Supervision and maintenance of the establishment matters of the three services and the Kotalawala Defence Academy.
Supervision and maintenance of the establishment matters of the National Cadets Corps.

In pursuance of the above objectives the Ministry of Defence provides policy directives and guidelines to the Departments functioning under it.

[edit] Key Functions

Maintenance of the defence in Sri Lanka.
Administration of the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence & the Directorate of Internal Intelligence.
Maintenance of General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.
Administration of the Sri Lanka Institute of Strategic Studies.
Administration of the Language Training Institute at Kotmale.
Administration of the National Cadet Corps.
Administration of the Department of Civil Defence (formaly the Home Guard Service)