report in Economy Next, Nov 24, 2023 at 11:37 pm
Sri Lanka has already started “right sizing” its strong military gradually to 150,000 by 2030 without any impact on national security while strengthening them with modern technology, State Defence Minister Minister Premitha Bandara Tennakoon said.
He said the government is in the process of reducing the army to 100,000, navy to 30,000, and air force to 20,000 by 2030 from the current numbers, which he did not mention.
“This will be done without removing anybody from the military. The numbers are based on natural reduction,” Tennakoon said, referring to the reduction due to retirements.
“While doing the right sizing of the military, we will be acquiring modern technology. We will do this gradually and carefully with no impact on national security. It will be done responsibly and in a scientific way.”
Sri Lanka’s 2024 defence budget of 423 billion rupees has been already approved by the parliament and it has been reduced to 6.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024 compared to this year’s 7.5 percent, he said.
Soon after the end of a 26-year war against separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, the defence budget was 13.5 percent of the GDP in 2010. https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-in-process-of-rightsizing-military-tri-forces-to-be-150000-by-2030-state-minister-141460/
