In its 2025 price range, the Sri Lankan authorities has allotted its Ministry of Defense (MoD) 442 billion Sri Lankan rupees (round $1.5 billion), a 3 p.c improve from $1.45 billion in 2024, and up 15 p.c from $1.3 billion in 2023.
Solely the Ministries of Finance, Planning and Financial Growth ($2.41 billion), Well being and Mass Media ($1.71 billion), Public Administration, and Provincial Councils, and Native Authorities ($1.68 billion) received bigger budgets. The Ministry of Transport, Highways, Ports, and Civil Aviation bought $1.42 billion, whereas the Ministry of Public Safety and Parliamentary Affairs, below which the Police Division falls, has been allotted $600 million.
Whereas the Sri Lankan Military has been allotted $761 million, the Sri Lanka Navy and the Air Drive will obtain $313 million and $244 million, respectively. These symbolize a rise of three p.c, 12 p.c, and 4 p.c over final 12 months, respectively.
As famous right here up to now, the majority of the MoD price range goes for recurrent expenditure, and this 12 months $1.29 billion was allotted for that objective. Solely about $203 million has been allotted for capital expenditure. The majority of the Ministry of Public Safety price range (about $540 million) has additionally been earmarked for recurrent bills.
Throughout his speech in Parliament because the minister of protection, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake stated that his authorities is dedicated to the choice taken by the previous government to cut back troop numbers.
“Our imaginative and prescient is to develop a technologically superior army with a smaller but more practical drive by 2030. We plan to restrict the scale of our military to 100,000, the Air Drive to 18,000, and the Navy to 40,000,” he said.
Whereas technically this could imply that the federal government can scale back protection expenditure, a demand by certain sections, provided that the majority of the allocation is for recurrent expenditure and salaries and different allowances for troops, it’s extremely unlikely that the Nationwide Folks’s Energy authorities will scale back protection bills within the coming years. In reality, there are a variety of indications that the protection price range will develop.
For one, the discount of the troops below the so-called “rightsizing” of the army isn’t as giant as folks assume. The Sri Lankan Army, which was about 300,000 sturdy in 2009, when the decades-long civil warfare ended, declined to round 135,000 in 2024. By December 31, 2023, the Navy had 44,532 personnel, and the Air Force had 17,567 common airmen and 9,076 volunteer airmen.
Fascinating, over the previous 16 years, whereas Sri Lanka has diminished its troop numbers drastically, the protection budgets have solely risen.
The NPP authorities has additionally indicated that it’s going to create a extra skilled drive that makes use of fashionable know-how, and this basically signifies that they might maintain recruiting younger women and men who’re higher certified academically. The federal government has introduced plans to recruit 4,000 airmen and 20,000 new cops within the coming years. Whereas the president didn’t point out new recruits to the navy, I imagine they too will likely be allowed to take just a few thousand extra sailors within the coming years, given the significance the NPP authorities is giving the maritime area.
The federal government has additionally determined to offer a substantial salary increase to the police drive, and it’s fairly doubtless {that a} related wage hike can be given to the tri-force personnel, which is crucial to draw higher expertise.
Another excuse why the protection price range is destined to extend is the president’s promise to rework the army into “a extra technologically superior drive.” Dissanayake has promised to modernize the naval and air drive fleet, increase spending on overseas coaching, and supply higher relaxation and recreation amenities for the troops. These are welcome developments provided that from 2009, successive Sri Lankan governments uncared for army modernization. The Sri Lankan Navy and Air Force function fleets that needs to be in army museums, and the coaching, each native and worldwide, obtained by army personnel has dropped.
Final month, Air Drive Commander Udeni Rajapaksa revealed plans to modernize Sri Lanka’s growing older fleet. Final 12 months, the Navy launched its NAVSTRAT–2030, a proposal for the Navy’s technique as much as 2030 and past, a method aligned with former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s improvement technique.
Nonetheless, questions stay concerning the sourcing of latest army know-how and coaching. What can be the origin of the brand new applied sciences Sri Lankan forces would use within the coming years? Asia just isn’t solely the main shopper of arms, but in addition a big producer of armaments.
Whereas the safety forces might have a imaginative and prescient of superb troop/plane/vessel composition, in the end all these are subjected to politics. A state, particularly a small island nation like Sri Lanka, can’t purchase equipment based mostly on purely monetary or operational elements. Geopolitical concerns play a giant function in protection procurement. For instance, most international locations would solely promote weapons to nations they see as allies and states procure weapon programs, for essentially the most half, to exhibit their allegiance to the manufacturing nation. Within the case of Sri Lanka, earlier makes an attempt at shopping for plane from Pakistan have been thwarted by Indian objections. Sri Lanka has kneecapped its marine analysis due to U.S. and Indian objections to Chinese language analysis vessels docking within the nation.
Up to now few a long time, many international locations in Asia have invested appreciable sources in growing their very own home arms industries. China, and to a lesser extent India and South Korea, have moved from producing comparatively easy sorts of weaponry to army gear of better complexity and class.
In 2025, China is just about self-sufficient in armaments and a world chief in future protection applied sciences. Beijing additionally exports practically each class of standard army gear, from unmanned aerial automobiles (UAVs) to naval vessels and fighter plane at cheaper prices and with less political strings. India too has imported sizable quantities of overseas army know-how – principally from the Soviet Union/Russia but in addition from France and the UK – to determine and increase its indigenous military-industrial complicated. Within the 2023-24 monetary 12 months, India bought weapons price $2.63 billion; Enterprise Customary studies that Indian protection exports grew 31 times between 2014 and 2024.
Regardless of Sri Lanka downsizing its army drive, crucial personnel enhancements, and technological modernization recommend that the protection price range will proceed to extend. Furthermore, the protection purchases it makes will likely be intertwined with geopolitical concerns, particularly provided that India fears that the NPP is ideologically pro-Chinese language. The number of companions for weapons and coaching will likely be a big strategic choice for the NPP authorities.
