Air Symposium 2015
10:04am on Tuesday 1st December 2015
The inaugural Air Symposium 2015, organized by the Sri Lanka Air Force was held today at the Eagle’s Lakeside Convention and Banquet Hall, Aththidiya. The Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Eng. Karunasena Hettiarachchi was the chief guest and Key Note Speaker at the Symposium which was attended by a broad cross section of military and civilian academics, public service officials, members of the diplomatic community and academics.
The theme of the symposium was “Nation Building through Maritime Air Security.”
Delivering the opening remarks, the Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinghala spoke of the importance of recognizing the importance of the maritime domain and the mastery of the air above it. He pointed out that the increasing importance of the Indian Ocean Region has ensured that ay turmoil in the region can lead to a cascading effect on the regional and global geo political environment.
Delivering the key note speech, Eng Hettiarachchi added that maritime concerns were always important for Sri Lanka even in history and that a new perspective has to be infused in to the visions of our defence as well as other public sector organization so as to ensure that we make the optimum use of our maritime resources.
Speaking as the guest speaker, former Commander of the Air Force, Air Chief Marshal OM Ranasinghe commented that the maritime concerns were critical even when he was the commander and that he had unfortunately not been successful in convincing the political leadership of the time that the maritime domain had to be dominated through military presence and capability. He urged the present leadership to pursue this agenda with conviction.
The Academic sessions comprised 8 presentation on various topics on the general theme of the symposium, and the sub themes of Maritime jointness, Maritime Surveillance and Strike, Maritime Search and Rescue and Maritime Air Cognition.
The full day symposium was also attended by the Chief of Defence Staff, the Commander of the Navy, former Commanders of the Air Force, Senior officers of the three services, Senior Public officials from the ministries, representatives of neighbouring and allied nations, members of the media as well as many other distinguished invitees.
The theme of the symposium was “Nation Building through Maritime Air Security.”
Delivering the opening remarks, the Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinghala spoke of the importance of recognizing the importance of the maritime domain and the mastery of the air above it. He pointed out that the increasing importance of the Indian Ocean Region has ensured that ay turmoil in the region can lead to a cascading effect on the regional and global geo political environment.
Delivering the key note speech, Eng Hettiarachchi added that maritime concerns were always important for Sri Lanka even in history and that a new perspective has to be infused in to the visions of our defence as well as other public sector organization so as to ensure that we make the optimum use of our maritime resources.
Speaking as the guest speaker, former Commander of the Air Force, Air Chief Marshal OM Ranasinghe commented that the maritime concerns were critical even when he was the commander and that he had unfortunately not been successful in convincing the political leadership of the time that the maritime domain had to be dominated through military presence and capability. He urged the present leadership to pursue this agenda with conviction.
The Academic sessions comprised 8 presentation on various topics on the general theme of the symposium, and the sub themes of Maritime jointness, Maritime Surveillance and Strike, Maritime Search and Rescue and Maritime Air Cognition.
The full day symposium was also attended by the Chief of Defence Staff, the Commander of the Navy, former Commanders of the Air Force, Senior officers of the three services, Senior Public officials from the ministries, representatives of neighbouring and allied nations, members of the media as well as many other distinguished invitees.
