Sri Lanka Navy gets UAVs from Japan
Japan on Monday announced the decision to provide the Sri Lanka Navy with two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) during President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s ongoing official visit to Japan.
Sri Lanka and Japan have exchanged notes on Japan’s Official Security Assistance (OSA) programme in the presence of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, a release from the Japanese embassy in Colombo said.
“Japan’s first OSA for Sri Lanka signifies that bilateral cooperation in security has entered a new phase,” it said.
Launched in 2023, OSA is a new grant aid cooperation framework of Japan to strengthen the security and deterrence capabilities of like-minded countries.
“OSA enables armed forces to be a recipient, differently from ‘Official Development Assistance (ODA)’, which is for the economic and social development of developing countries,” the release added.
Under the OSA Programme, two types of state-of-the-art Japanese-made Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) worth 500 million yen (approximately 1 billion Sri Lankan rupees) will be provided to the Sri Lanka Navy.
These UAVs will be used for monitoring, surveillance and disaster relief work. The project is expected to enhance the security of Sri Lanka, maintaining and strengthening regional stability.
