Naval Patrolmen

Naval Patrolmen Branch
Naval Patrolmen Branch
Active	1987–Present
Country	Insurrection 1987-89; Sri Lankan Civil War

Naval Patrolmen Branch is a

LTTE in conjunction with the Sri Lanka Army or independently, using both infantry and light armored units.^[1] It has also taken part in amphibious operations.^[1]

History

Naval personnel have been deployed on

1971 JVP Insurrection. Since the 1970s up until the late 1980s the navy personnel guarded the Broadcasting Corporation

station in Colombo.

With the escalation of the

armored vehicles

.

Naval Patrolmen have taken part in several major combat operations alongside Army units, these include

Delft Island and Kayts. Since 1987, the Naval Patrolmen frequently mounts guard at the Presidents House

, and carry out other ceremonial duties.

In 2016, the Sri Lanka Navy formed its first battalion of Marines consisting of 6 officers and 158 sailors from the Naval Patrolmen branch, specializing in amphibious warfare. The unit started training under the assistance of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit of the United States Marine Corps in November 2016 ^[2]^[3]

Organisation and current role

Officers and patrolmen are organized into battalions based at naval bases island wide and independent detachments. All units come under the command of Director Naval Land Operations, who in turn reports to Director General (Operations), however individual units come under that command of the Naval Area Command that they belong too.

At first the primary role was harbor and base security, but increased its numbers and scope for amphibious and land combat operations. In recent years with expansion of the number of battalions, patrolmen have begun supporting the Sri Lanka Army in manning defence lines in the north central part of the country and taking part in offensive operations jointly or independently. This led to the formation of the North Central Command (which covers a landlocked area). The security of the Colombo harbor, along with all other harbors in the country is handled by the navy, as the Sri Lanka Navy is the Designated Authority for implementing International Ships and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code in Sri Lanka. To achieve its objectives, patrolmen are equipped with light arms and have mortars and light armoured vehicles.

The unit's Training Centre is located at SLNS Pandukabaya.

Weapons

Land vehicles

Mine-protected APC

Unicorn

– Mine-protected APC

Land Rover Defender

Mortars

Type 84 (W84) 82 mm mortars
Type 89 60 mm mortars

Small arms

Handguns

M9 Pistol
Enfield revolver

Assault Rifles

Assault rifles
M16 Assault rifles

Sub-Machine guns

Submachine Guns

Machine guns

PK machine guns (Chinese version of Russian PKM)
Type 56 LMG (Chinese version of Russian RPD)

Sniper Rifles

Sniper Rifles

Grenade launchers

M203 Grenade launcher

Rocket launchers

Type 69 RPG Rocket launchers (Chinese version of RPG-7)

References

^ ^a ^b "Sri Lanka Navy - Amphibious".
^ "US Marines train recently formed SLN Marine Corps". Retrieved 2016-11-23.
^ "Sri Lanka Navy and US Marine Corps personnel engage in a series of training exercises". Archived from the original on 2016-11-28.

External links

Naval Patrolman Branch

[SLN-1] "Sri Lanka Navy - Amphibious".

[2] "US Marines train recently formed SLN Marine Corps". Retrieved 2016-11-23.

[3] "Sri Lanka Navy and US Marine Corps personnel engage in a series of training exercises". Archived from the original on 2016-11-28.

[1]

[2]

[3]