Sri Lanka will buy four unmanned aerial vehicles from Israel for Rs. 4,261 million, Deputy Minister of Defence Major General Aruna Jayasekara (Retd.) told Parliament, describing the deal as an emergency procurement that will not require new money.
Parliament approved a supplementary estimate allocating the sum to the Sri Lanka Air Force on Thursday, the Government Information Department said.
Jayasekara said the aircraft will be acquired on a government-to-government basis through BlueBird Aero Systems, a supplier in which Israel Aerospace Industries holds an equity stake, EconomyNext and Daily FT reported.
What the aircraft are for
The drones will patrol Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone, an area of 517,000 square kilometres — about 27 times the country’s land area. Their tasks will include tracking suspicious vessels, locating missing fishermen and supporting responses to floods and cyclones.
“The Sri Lanka Air Force is responsible for monitoring a large maritime area, and continuous surveillance using conventional aircraft is very costly,” Jayasekara said. “Therefore, we are proposing to acquire these unmanned aerial systems.”
Two of the four are ThunderB aircraft with endurance of up to 14 hours; the remainder can stay aloft up to 20 hours and take off vertically or over short distances where ground space is limited. The package includes operator training and three years of maintenance support. Earlier negotiations had been expected to yield only two aircraft.
The funding question
Jayasekara said the purchase requires no additional state funds, with the cost met by diverting money already allocated for Air Force helicopter maintenance under Financial Regulation 66.
“Within the Air Force, the funds saved from maintenance costs previously allocated for helicopters will be utilised for this purpose. Therefore, there is no additional cost being requested or newly allocated,” he said.
The Government Information Department’s account, carried by the Daily Mirror, describes the estimate differently, saying the funds will be drawn from the Consolidated Fund, other government funds or government loans. The two descriptions have not been reconciled publicly: one sets out the legal authority for the allocation, the other the source of the cash.
The department said the move responds to a changing operational environment, disaster vulnerability in the Bay of Bengal region and persistent adverse weather.
Following parliamentary approval, the agreement goes to the Attorney General’s Department and then to Cabinet. The government is targeting signature in December.