CONTENTS Q PREFACE ........................................................................................................................ 01 Q MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY TO THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE .............. 02 Q MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDER OF THE AIR FORCE .................................. 03 Q EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................. 04 Q OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................. 05 Q SPEAKERS, RESEARCHERS AND SESSION MODERATORS ................................ 06 Q STEERING COMMITTEE ............................................................................................. 06 Q ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... 07 Q DISSERTATIONS Maritime Joint Operations Implementation of Joint Maritime Operations ............................................................ 08 - 16 Utilization of SLAF Helicopters in Joint Operations to Combat Illegal Sea Activities and Protection of Maritime Resources ....................................................... 17 - 24 Maritime Surveillance and Strike Transformation in Role of UAV Squadron to Meet The Maritime Security Challenges ................................................................................................................... 25 - 31 Importance of Formulating a Maritime Strike Squadron for SLAF .......................... 32 - 36 Maritime Search and Rescue Impact on Nation Building Through Maritime Security Integrated with Effective SAR Operations of SLAF: Post War Context ............................................. 37 - 45 The role of SLAF Elite Forces in Maritime Security: Air and Maritime Perspective .................................................................................................................. 46 - 5857 Maritime Air Cognition Spatial Disorientation as an Aero Medical Concern in Rotor Wing Maritime Operations of Sri Lanka Air Force .............................................................................. 5958 - 6263 The Nexus Between Artificial Intelligence and Military Cognition: A Dire Requirement of Ensuring SLAF to Face the Future ................................................... 6364 - 67 Q GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................... 68 - 6970 Preface Sri Lanka is an island nation with a strong maritime through the most efficient use of available resources and heritage and maritime interests throughout the history. resources we required to anticipate to utilized on Almost every aspect of our national life depends on our maritime security. We will achieve the objectives set out connections to the wider world, and most of these here through a thorough understanding of the risks we connections are provided by the sea. We depend on the face, coupled with an ambitious but pragmatic approach sea for our prosperity and security and are reliant on a to the opportunities we could exploit – so as well as stable transportation for the raw materials, energy and having the capabilities to respond to security incidents, manufactured goods critical to sustaining our way of life. we also undertake overseas capacity building, deterrence Recent trends such as globalization, resource and diplomacy to disrupt potential future threats before competition, population growth and climate change have they appear. changed the maritime domain to one that is simultaneously more connected – providing substantial The Symposium will be an eye opening to study for growth opportunities for nation building of Sri Lanka; comprehensive cross government approach to maritime and more contested – in which developments in distant surveillance, information gathering, and decision maritime regions can have an immediate and direct making, enhanced by regional and multinational impact on our prosperity and security. As a nation, we cooperation, and supported by ongoing scrutiny to have always looked into the wider world to shape and ensure we continue to improve. We will seek to take influence international events. This symposium advantage of this opportunity by continuing to promote critically explains how we organize and use our current Sri Lanka as the global centre for maritime business, national capabilities to identify, assess and address promoting a stable maritime domain and the freedom of maritime security issues at home and overseas, and how the seas, and maintaining the Sri Lanka's position as a we intend to improve our ability to do so in future driver of international cooperation and consensus. 01 MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY TO THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE It is with great pleasure that I issue this message for the Air Symposium 2015 of Sri Lanka Air Force. The great prominence that the Indian Ocean Region has taken in recent years in contemporary international affairs is evidence of the shift in the global balance of power. The rapid emergence of our Neighboring, India and China as Power houses in today's global stage is testimony to the emerging dynamics as regional giants which also means that Sri Lanka, a small island nation, is now potentially right in the Centre of this emerging world. I am happy therefore, that the Sri Lanka Air Force has taken up the subject of Nation Building through Maritime Air Security as the theme for their Symposium this year is a very appropriate and timely topic for contemplation and consideration in today's geopolitical and security context. Having put behind us, the destructive effects of a three decade long separatist terrorist conflict, we are now striving to recover lost progress, in the hope that we will be able to regain our rightful place in the international arena. Being an island nation, the ocean and its environs are our lifeline. It is both a medium of communication with the rest of the world and a treasure trove of natural resources that will help us in our journey to greater development. However, the oceans and their environs are not without their hazards. Today, sea-based terrorism, hijacking, piracy, and human trafficking as well as other threats have also made the seas potentially unsafe. Maritime security has become not just a formality but a real, even dire, necessity. It is my firm belief that forums such as this will be the key medium through which we can gain better understanding on how to gain greater control cover the oceans around us, which would enable us to make maximum use of its potential for national growth and prosperity. I commend Commander of the Air Force for this vision and foresight in organizing an event of this nature and wish him, his men and all participants a great and fruitful interaction. Eng. KARUNASENA HETTIARACHCHI SECRETARY TO THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE 02 MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDER OF THE AIR FORCE It is with great pleasure that I send my sentiments on the occasion of the inaugural “Air Symposium - 2015”.Sri Lanka as a nation underwent immense hardship during the three decade long conflict retarding the nation's development and growth. During this turbulent period the total focus of the Sri Lanka Air Force was to concentrate on its core competency to defeat the terrorist effort. In this process Sri Lanka Air Force gained immense experience in mastering the intricacies of waging complicated, non-conventional isometric aerial warfare. The knowledge and experience gained is extensive, but its growth as an Air Force institution was limited to the practicalities of war fighting, whereas in comparison regional Air Forces have taken great strides. Thus, the inaugural Air Symposium has been aptly themed as ‘Nation Building Through Maritime Air Security', with the aim of looking towards a future, in which the Sri Lanka Air Force evolves, to influence activity beyond its shores and contributes to the transition of Sri Lanka from a post conflict country, to a developed Nation. The Indian Ocean which covers almost 20% of the world's surface has dominated the economic and political affairs of the region and the world since the beginning of history; and Sri Lanka which geographically straddles the strategic Indian Ocean sea route is of immense geopolitical value, thus being vulnerable to influence. In the economic context we as an Island are yet to fully exploit the abundant and diverse resources in our legitimate maritime zone. In the context securing these resources for viable use in the long term and also conservation, we need to possess the capacity to respond to the needs of their safety and security, the failure of which will result in their inaccessibility to our future generations. The National Security interests of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) are the core responsibility of the Sri Lanka Navy, whilst policing it is the role of the still very young Sri Lanka Coast Guard. Though rarely emphasized, the Sri Lanka Air Force too has a substantial responsibility in relation to the National Security, aspects, and conservation of the Exclusive Economic Zone. The greater active involvement of the Sri Lanka Air Force, utilizing its core competencies would provide to augment the role already played by the Sri Lanka Navy and the Sri Lanka Coast Guard. To meet this need we need to identify specifics, build capacity, share knowledge and participate in a wider spectrum of activity than done at present. Thus, this Air Symposium is a stepping stone towards redefining, with greater emphasis