Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay and Vice Chief of Indian Navy Vice Admiral SN Ghormade will hand over the Dornier surveillance aircraft to the Sri Lankan navy on the latter's two-day visit to the Island nation.
Sri Lankan Airforce spokesperson Captain Dushan Wijesinghe confirmed the Sri Lankan President's attendance at the event and said the handover ceremony would take place at the Sri Lankan Airforce base in Katunyake adjoining Colombo international airport.
Sri Lanka had sought the possibility of obtaining two Dornier Reconnaissance Aircraft from India during the Defence Dialogue held in January 2018 to enhance its maritime surveillance capabilities.
Dornier 228 Maritime Patrol Aircraft is a Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL), multirole light transport aircraft used by the Indian Navy for electronic warfare missions, maritime surveillance, and disaster relief sysem and has been in production since 1981.
The 15-member Sri Lankan crew responsible for flying and maintaining the aircraft have all been trained in India for four months. The crew includes pilots, observers, engineering officers and technicians. They will be supervised by the Indian technical team attached to the Sri Lankan Air Force(SLAF).
This is the first ever Dornier Aircraft to be inducted into the SLAF fleet. Reports indicate India may provide one Dornier 228 Maritime Patrol Aircraft from the Indian Naval Fleet on a gratis basis for two years in the interim until a plane being manufactured in India for Sri Lanka is ready.
The handing over of Dornier Aircraft comes a day before the Chinese ship 'Yuan Wang 5' docks at the Sri Lankan ports for a week. Yuan Wang 5 was originally slated to arrive in Sri Lanka on August 11 but it was delayed when Sri Lankan authorities did not give permission to board its docks amid pressure from India.
Sri Lanka later gave port access to the ship for a week from August 16 to 22. Reports say India was worried about the possibility of the vessel's tracking systems attempting to snoop on Indian installations while being on its way to the Sri Lankan port.
With inputs from agencies
