First-ever Inshore Patrol Craft Handling Foundation Course for Navy women successfully concludes

The first-ever Inshore Patrol Craft (IPC) Handling Foundation Course arranged for the lady officers and women sailors of the Sri Lanka Navy concluded on a successful note in Trincomalee recently. The course participants demonstrated their practical application of IPC handling before Commander of the Navy and Senior Officers at the Naval Dockyard Trincomalee on 15th December 2022.

Meanwhile, the certificate awarding for 13 participants (04 lady officers and 09 women sailors) who successfully completed the module was also held under the patronage of Director General Operations, Rear Admiral Pradeep Rathnayake and Director General Training Rear Admiral Mahinda Mahawatte at the Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda Auditorium in the Naval and Maritime Academy, Trincomalee on 16th December 2022.

The initiative was set in motion in October this year, as per an idea put forward by Commander of the Navy, Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne. The prime motive of the initiative was to give an opportunity to Navy women who are willing to serve on ships and craft, which has been a duty solely operated by men so far. Accordingly, the Navy hopes to deploy all-women Inshore Patrol Craft handling crews for IPC duties at harbours in the future.

Accordingly, 04 lady officers –Lieutenant(S) OSS Dannoruwa, Lieutenant(VNF) RAI Madushani, Lieutenant(VNF) HU Edirisinghe, Sub Lieutenant(PRO) MN Gunawardena and 09 women sailors successfully completed the Inshore Patrol Craft Handling Foundation Course.

These lady officers and women sailors sharpened their practical and theoretical knowledge on Navigation, Seamanship, Engineering, Electricity, Combat Medicine, Firefighting and Communication during the programme.

Promoting more opportunities for women in the service, the Navy Band featured a group of women sailors and for the first time in the history of Sri Lanka Navy, 02 lady officers and 01 woman sailor successfully completed the Basic Diver Module for women on 24th September 2022.

After basic training modules, the Navy hopes to provide further training opportunities to those participants and explore the possibility of effectively deploying women in the Navy for duties on-board ships in the future.