page_title: Sri Lanka Army
section_title: 1970–present
hierarchical_section_title: Sri Lanka Army / History / 1970–present
caption_attribution_description: Sri Lanka Army
context_page_description: The Sri Lankan Army is the oldest and largest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. Established as the Ceylon Army in 1949, it was renamed when Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972. In 2010, the Army had approximately 200,000 regular personnel, between 20,000–40,000 reserve personnel and 18,000 National Guardsmen and comprises 13 operational divisions, one air-mobile brigade, one commando brigade, one special forces brigade, one independent armored brigade, three mechanized infantry brigades and over 40 infantry brigades. From the 1980s to 2009 the army was engaged in the Sri Lankan Civil War.
  The professional head of the Sri Lanka Army is the Commander of the Army, currently Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva. The Commander-in-Chief of the Sri Lankan Military is the President of Sri Lanka, who heads the National Security Council through the Ministry of Defence, which is the highest level of military command charged with formulating, executing defence policy and procurements for the armed forces. However operations of the Sri Lanka Army are coordinated by the Joint Operations Command, with other two armed forces.
context_section_description: In 1971, the found itself facing a full blown insurgency, when the JVP Insurrection broke out in April 1971. Having being caught by surprise, as a result of failure to comprehend the magnitude of the insurgency from intelligence reports. Although completely ill-prepared to deal with an insurgency, lacking weapons, ammunition, equipment and training; the army responded quickly and successfully defeated the insurgency by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna by mid 1971.
  In May 1972, when Ceylon was proclaimed a republic and changed its name from the Dominion of Ceylon to the Republic of Sri Lanka, all Army units were renamed accordingly.
  By the late 1970s the army was confronted with a new conflict, this time with Tamil militant groups in the north of the island. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) emerged as the prominent of these Tamil militant groups. The war escalated to the point where India intervened as a peacekeeping force. This was later seen as a tactical error, as the Indian Peace Keeping Force united nationalist elements such as the JVP to politically support the LTTE in their call to evict the IPKF. This led to a second insurgency by the JVP, forcing the army to deploy its forces in the south of the island and to fight on two fronts between 1987 and 1989. The 1980s saw a massive expiation of the army from 15,000 personal to over 30,000 and more. New regiments were raised, while others were expanded with new battalions. New weapons and equipment were introduced as the war shifted from counter-insurgency to conventional warfare tactics, with multi battalion, brigade and division scale operations. New regiments were formed which included the Commando Regiment, Special Forces Regiment, Mechanized Infantry Regiment, Gajaba Regiment, Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment, Military Intelligence Corps, Sri Lanka Army Women's Corps, Sri Lanka Rifle Corps and the Sri Lanka National Guard.      
  The war with the LTTE was halted several times for peace negotiations, the last of which following the signing of a ceasefire agreement in 2002 with the help of international mediation. However, renewed violence broke out in December 2005 and following the collapse of peace talks, the Army has been involved in the heavy fighting that has resumed in the north and east of the country.
  Since 1980 the army has undertaken many operations against the LTTE rebels. The major operations conducted by the army eventually led to the recapture of Jaffna and other rebel strongholds. On 19 May 2009 Sri Lankan army declare the victory of war as they found the dead body of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. This marked the end of the war, with the LTTE ceasing to exist in Sri Lanka as a result of prolonged military offensives conducted by Sri Lanka army. The Sri Lankan Armed Forces, including the army, have been accused of committing war crimes during the war, particularly during the final stages. A panel of experts appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to advise him on the issue of accountability with regard to any alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the civil war found "credible allegations" which, if proven, indicated that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and the Tamil Tigers.
caption: Sri Lanka Army flags
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