The weapons of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

[MT2008]

I know a little about this topic, because one of my assignments while I was an intern was to write updates on the conflict that the analysts could use. Of course, I quickly how full of shit the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence could often be...

Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira

They don't use FALs anymore. They replaced those in the Mid 1990s with G3s, FNCs and Type 56s. The FNCs are still common though. The G3s themselves are still being used but is really small quantites. It seems the Type 56 and the FNC are most common weapons in the hands of the SLA.

I still trying to find out about the weapons the SLA used in the 1980s. I also trying to find out about the uniforms they used in the 1980s and today. Can anyone help?

Actually, the G3 is one of the weapons that they started to replace in the mid-80s, along with the FAL. Being that it was a 7.62 NATO battle rifle and that those were going out of style.

The FNC was officially adopted, but I don't think the Defence Ministry bought too many of them. I think they originally wanted it to become their new service rifle, but the problem was that the Sri Lankan Army pretty much had to double in personnel size during the 1980s and early-90s, in response to the escalation of the conflict with the Tigers. They only had limited money to fund the expansion, so that meant that they had to go with cheaper small arms, and that's why they bought so many Type 56 AKs from the Chinese instead of the more expensive FNCs from the Belgians. On the other hand, the FNCs were most likely to be used by the front-line units fighting the LTTE.

In the past 5 years, it seems that the Chinese have also been selling the SLA many of their surplus Type 81 rifles, and even some Type 95s. I've seen plenty of both types in the hands of SLA personnel in photos from 2005 onwards.

As for the LTTE, they use a lot of material that they've captured from the SLA, which means lots of the Type 56s, 81s, and FNCs. They've also bought a lot of weaponry on the black market from arms dealers in the former Soviet Union (Viktor Bout used to be one of their suppliers, allegedly). And of course, the Sri Lankan government used to accuse the Indian government of supplying them with weaponry (mostly, stuff that the Indians bought from the Russians), which is partially true.

Interestly, I remember on HKPRO, somebody posted a photo of Prabhakaran (the LTTE's chief commander) carrying an H&K USP Tactical with a LAM unit in a shoulder holster. Not sure where he got that from. Oh, yes, and may he rest in piss.