No. 10 "Fighter" Squadron is a squadron of the

Sri Lanka Air Force The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF; ; ) is the air force, air arm and the youngest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. It was founded in 1951 as the Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) with the assistance of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The SLAF played a major r ...

. It currently operates the

IAI Kfir The Israel Aircraft Industries Kfir (, "Lion Cub") is an Israeli all-weather multirole combat aircraft based on the French Dassault Mirage 5, with Israeli avionics and an Israeli-built version of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine. Develop ...

from

SLAF Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) (commonly known as Colombo International Airport, Colombo–Bandaranaike International Airport, and locally as Katunayake International Airport) (IATA: CMB, ICAO: VCBI) is the main international airport ...

. The squadron is tasked with providing offensive support for ground & maritime (anti-shipping) operations,

air interdiction Air interdiction (AI), also known as deep air support (DAS), is the use of preventive tactical bombing and strafing by combat aircraft against enemy targets that are not an immediate threat, to delay, disrupt or hinder later enemy engagement o ...

and interception. It specializes in high altitude

precision Precision, precise or precisely may refer to: Arts and media * ''Precision'' (march), the official marching music of the Royal Military College of Canada * "Precision" (song), by Big Sean * ''Precisely'' (sketch), a dramatic sketch by the Eng ...

ground attacks.

History

The squadron was formed on January 5, 1996 at the

with six IAI Kfir multi-role fighter jets acquired from

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, with

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

approval. These included five C2 types and a TC.2 type trainer. At its formation the squadron had six pilots, four engineers and 70 technicians along with the six aircraft. In 2000, the squadron received eight more Kfirs that included C7 types and another trainer. On November 2, 2007 the Sri Lankan Air Force claimed that aircraft from the squadron killed the

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...

’s Political Wing Leader S.P. Thamilselvan and a group of LTTE cadres in an air raid. During the last phase of the war it maintained units at

SLAF China Bay SLAF may refer to *The Sri Lanka Armed Forces, the combined military of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka **The Sri Lanka Air Force The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF; ; ) is the air force, air arm and the youngest of the Sri Lanka Armed ...

. In March 2009, the squadron was presented with the President’s Colours. By 2017 only one Kfir was serviceable out of 7 while Mig 23 and

Mig 27 The Mikoyan MiG-27 (; NATO reporting name: Flogger-D/J) is a variable-sweep ground-attack aircraft, originally built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union and later licence-produced in India by Hindustan Aeronautics as ...

of the No. 12 Squadron grounded in the same year. In 2021 government approved a US$49 million deal with

Israel Aerospace Industries Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI; ), is Israel's major aerospace and aviation manufacturer, producing aerial and astronautic systems for both military and civilian usage. It has 14,000 employees as of 2021. IAI is state-owned by the government ...

to update the remaining five Kfirs to Block 60 standard.

Aircraft operated

Year of introduction * IAI Kfir C2 - 1996 * IAI Kfir TC2 - 1996 * IAI Kfir C7 - 2000

Notable members

* Monath Perera

References

External links

Sri Lanka Air Force Base Katunayake Kfir, the dare-devil air monster

{{DEFAULTSORT:No. 10 Squadron Slaf Military units and formations established in 1996 10