Sri Lanka Air Force Women's Wing
Military unit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sri Lanka Air Force Women's Wing is an organization of the Sri Lanka Air Force which serves as the record office of female officers and airwomen, it also makes their promotional lists, issues their identity cards, makes annual assessments (performance reports), ensures welfare and also arranges annual meetings and seminars.[1][2][3] The wing was formed on 3 September 1987 and the first commanding officer of this wing was Air Commodore D.S.G. Vithana, at that time the wing office was situated in Colombo.[1]
| SLAF Women's Wing | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1987 - present |
| Country | Sri Lanka |
| Allegiance |  Sri Lanka |
| Branch |  Sri Lanka Air Force |
| Commanders | |
| Commanding Officer | - |
| Notable commanders | Air Chief Marshal Donald Perera |
In the Sri Lanka Air Force, women are not trained separately, they are trained together with men.[4] An airwoman cannot serve more than 15 years in the Sri Lanka Air Force.[5]
Commanding Officers of SLAF Women's Wing include:
- Air Vice Marshal G. D. Perera (? – 1 August 2002)[6]
- Group Captain M. H. Karannagoda (2 August 2002 – ?)[6]
History about the women of the Sri Lanka Air Force
In 1971, four women joined as pilot officers into the Sri Lanka Air Force who were trained in SLAF Katunayake for some weeks, this was the first time in the history of the Sri Lanka Air Force that women wore air force uniforms.[7] The women were posted in air force headquarters. In January 1983, the first batch of airwomen were recruited.[8] First female firefighting unit of the air force was created in 1997 with 30 airwomen firefighters.[3] These airwomen retired after 15 years in 2012.[9] In 2008, seven airwomen completed paratroopers course.[10] In 2019, two women officers and seven airwomen became members of the Special Airborne Force.[11] Also in the same year one female officer and one airwoman were trained in Britain's Army School of Ceremonial.[12] In 1998 during the Sri Lankan civil war, the Sri Lanka Air Force took decision to recruit women for the pilots' branch, 800 women applied for 33 vacancies,[13] however the recruitment was later cancelled. In 2020 for the first time, two women were commissioned as pilots from the Air Force Academy, China Bay.[14] In 2023, three women were air commodores in the Sri Lanka Air Force, among them two were directors in the air force headquarters.[15]