Quote:
Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira
Hey thanks. Unfortunately, most of those pictures are of Special Forces. Most
of them are also from this decade.
Some questions.
1. I first though that the SLA standard Issue Helmet today was a PASGT helmet with or without helmet nets, but alot of those pictures have Soldiers with some weird Soviet Helmet. What helmet do the SLA wear today?
2. Does the SLA ever use Shotguns? If so, when?
3. When did the SLA get their hands on all those RPDs, PKMs and CAR-15s?
I'm really sorry to bug you so much. I'm really sorry. Is just that i find The Sri Lankan civil War really intersting.  |
You're not bugging me; this is just a discussion. This is what a message board is for.
The topic I gave you was just one; I would recommend trying the search feature for the Military Pictures forum and see what else you come up with. I know I've seen pics dating back to the earlier days of the conflict (including the brief period of India's involvement). But to be fair, you will have a lot of difficulty finding good pictures, which is mostly due to the Defence Ministry's near-blackout on media access to the war zone that has been in effect for decades (to cover up their involvement in activities which might or might not be reported as atrocities, undoubtedly).
As for the others:
(1.) Judging by the pictures, they use everything from U.S.-issue surplus PASGT helmets to surplus WWII-issue Russian helmets. Again, you have to remember that this is a Third World military that had a lot of personnel to field (due to the danger posed by the LTTE) and very little money to spend (due to a low GNP). In that kind of situation, the Defence Ministry buys mostly low-cost surplus wherever they can find/afford it, in everything from small arms to helmets to APCs. There is really not going to be very much - if any - level of standardization. This is as true for Sri Lanka as Equatorial Guinea or Lebanon or any other low-income country.
(2.) I don't know if they use any shotguns; I haven't seen any personally. The Wikipedia article on the SLA doesn't list any in their infantry weapons section. Personally, I can't see too much use for shotguns, given the sort of operations in which SLA units (even special forces) typically take part.
(3.) The SLA has purchased material from both Russia and the People's Republic of China, as well as some Eastern European countries, so the RPDs and PKMs could have come from any of those sources. As for the CAR-15s, the U.S. has sold small arms to the SLA on several occasions. They've also bought lots of stuff from the Israeli government (their AF flies the Kfir fighter-bomber), and it's possible that the Izzies also sold them some M16-type weapons.