Navy-Air Force joint exercise held 50 nautical miles off shore for the first time

A joint operation of helicopter-landing onboard SLNS Sindurala was successfully carried out by Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force, utilizing MI 17 and Bell 412 helicopters off the coast of Panadura on 13^th November 2019.

Each MI 17 and Bell 412 conducted speed synchronization rounds prior to the landing and the Bell 412 made 3 successful landings while the ship was underway. After the Bell 412 landing, the ship proceeded 50 nautical miles away from the land to conduct rest of the operation with MI 17. Similarly, MI 17 also made 3 successful VERTREPs with landing a dummy man on the helideck.

Further, this went down in history as the first exercise in which a human effigy was successfully landed on a Sri Lanka Navy platform by a helicopter about 50 nautical miles off the shore.

During this significant joint operation, the aviation core team was provided by SLNS Sindurala. Meanwhile, Commander Eastern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Merril Wickramasinghe and Director Naval Operations, Commodore Sanjeewa Dias were also witnessed the exercise remaining aboard.