Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British i ...

Oliver Matthew Ranasinghe, RWP, VSV, USP, ndc, psc was the 9th Commander of the Sri Lankan Air Force. Educated at Dharmapala College, Pannipitiya Ranasinghe joined the

Royal Ceylon Air Force The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF; ; ) is the 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 role throu ...

on 7 February 1968 as a

Sergeant Pilot A sergeant pilot was a non-commissioned officer who had undergone flight training and was a qualified pilot in the air forces of several Commonwealth countries before, during and after World War II. It was also a term used in the United States Arm ...

. He received his Basic Ground Combat training at RCyAF Diyatalawa where he won the trophy for the best marksman. He then went to the Flying Training School at RCyAF China Bay. He trained on de Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunks,

de Havilland DH.104 Dove The de Havilland DH.104 Dove is a British short-haul airliner developed and manufactured by de Havilland. The design, which was a monoplane successor to the pre-war Dragon Rapide biplane, came about from the Brabazon Committee report which, a ...

s and

BAC Jet Provost The BAC Jet Provost is a British jet trainer aircraft that was in use with the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1955 to 1993. It was originally developed by Hunting Percival from the earlier piston engine-powered Percival Provost basic trainer, and l ...

s, gaining his

wings A wing is a type of fin that produces both lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-drag ratio, which compares the bene ...

in 1969. Having piloted both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft in the RCyAF, he went on to command the No. 4 Squadron and serve as

Base Commander The base commander is the officer assigned to command a military base. In the United States armed forces, a base commander is generally at least an O-6 grade officer, which means colonel (Army, Air Force, Marines) or captain (Navy, Coast Guard). ...

SLAF Anuradhapura 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 ...

. He had attended the

Air Command and Staff College The Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) is located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama and is the United States Air Force's intermediate-level Professional Military Education (PME) school. It is a subordinate command of the Air Un ...

, the National Defence College, New Delhi and completed a Senior Management Course at Monterey, California. He was then appointed Director Operations and thereafter Chief of Staff. On 17 February 1994, he was appointed Commander of the Air Force and promoted to the rank of Air Marshal. During his tenure the SLAF acquired 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 ...

Mil Mi-24 The Mil Mi-24 (; NATO reporting name: Hind) is a large helicopter gunship, attack helicopter and low-capacity transport helicopter, troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and was introduced ...

s and Antonov An-32s.

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

s where also added to its fleet. He retired on 5 March 1999 and he was succeeded by Jayalath Weerakkody. His awards include

Rana Wickrama Padakkama The Rana Wickrama Padakkama (RWP, Combat Gallantry Medal) (Sinhala language, Sinhala: රණ වික්‍රම පදක්කම) is awarded to Sri Lankan military service personnel serving in both the regular- and volunteer forces as a rew ...

for gallantry, and the service medals

Vishista Seva Vibhushanaya The Vishista Seva Vibhushanaya (VSV, Distinguished Service Order) ( Sinhala: විශිෂ්ට සේවා විභූෂණය ''viṣiṣta sēvā vibhūṣaṇaya'') is awarded to senior officers of the Military of Sri Lanka in recognit ...

and

Uttama Seva Padakkama The Uttama Seva Padakkama (USP, Meritorious Service Medal) ( Sinhala: උත්තම සේවා පදක්කම ''uṭṭama sēvā padakkama'') is presented to all ranks of the regular forces of the Sri Lankan military for: Award proc ...

. On 1 October 2007, he was promoted to the rank of

References

{{Commanders of the Sri Lankan Air Force Commanders of the Sri Lanka Air Force Sri Lankan Air Chief Marshals Sinhalese military personnel Alumni of Dharmapala Vidyalaya Air Command and Staff College alumni National Defence College, India alumni