India to upgrade Lankan air defence guns, proposes joint maritime surveillance grid

NEW DELHI: India will upgrade six L-70 air defence guns of the Sri Lankan Air Force under a government grant, in the most substantive of three defence agreements exchanged in Colombo on Wednesday, as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh proposed an integrated real-time maritime surveillance grid to give the two countries a common operating picture of shipping around the island nation.

The gun-upgrade agreement, along with pacts on military academic cooperation and youth exchanges, was signed during Singh’s three-day visit to Sri Lanka. As reported by TNIE on Sunday, the three agreements were expected to be concluded during the visit.

The L-70 guns, originally supplied to Sri Lanka by India, will be upgraded under the grant. The modernisation, the defence ministry said, will “significantly strengthen the air defence architecture of critical assets in Sri Lanka”.

The 40mm L-70, of Swedish Bofors origin, dates back to the 1960s and was licence-produced in India at the Ordnance Factory in Jabalpur. The gun continues to be deployed extensively by the Indian armed forces, including in upgraded configurations.

The system also saw operational use during Operation Sindoor in May last year, when upgraded air-defence batteries deployed from Ladakh to Gujarat were used against waves of Pakistani drones targeting Indian military and other installations.

The second memorandum provides for academic cooperation between the National Defence College in New Delhi and Sri Lanka’s corresponding institution, including exchange of knowledge and expertise. The third formalises the youth exchange programme between the National Cadet Corps of the two countries.

Singh and Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake also virtually inaugurated three Bailey bridges constructed by Indian defence forces in Sri Lanka.

But the more consequential proposal came later in the day, with Singh pitching a wider maritime-security architecture that could deepen India’s real-time visibility across the waters around Sri Lanka.

Speaking at Sri Lanka’s defence ministry in the presence of Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekara and the commanders of the Sri Lankan Army, Navy and Air Force, Singh proposed an integrated Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) system linking the two countries’ navies, coast guards and civilian agencies.

The proposed grid would facilitate real-time information sharing on maritime traffic and help address “illegal fishing, suspicious vessels tracking, narcotics trafficking, smuggling, terrorism and other security threats”, Singh said.

The reference to tracking suspicious vessels assumes significance against the backdrop of Sri Lanka’s concerns over the presence of Chinese research and tracking vessels in its waters. Colombo imposed a moratorium on foreign research vessels in January 2024 after the Chinese satellite-tracking vessel Yuan Wang 5 had docked at Hambantota in 2022.

Singh, however, framed the proposed maritime architecture primarily in terms of securing the wider Indian Ocean rather than as a counter to any particular country.

“Secure sea lanes, freedom of navigation, respect for international law and unhindered maritime trade are pivotal for collective security and prosperity of the Indian Ocean Region,” he said, calling for emerging challenges to be addressed “before they evolve into serious threats”.

The proposal dovetails with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) vision, under which India has sought to build greater maritime-security cooperation with Indian Ocean littorals.

A significant part of the infrastructure for such cooperation is already in place. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Colombo, commissioned in June 2024 with a $6-million Indian grant and built by Bharat Electronics Ltd, operates from Sri Lanka’s naval headquarters. It has a sub-centre at Hambantota and seven unmanned installations along the Sri Lankan coast.

Singh also proposed a joint mechanism for maritime disaster relief and called for fisheries-related disputes between the two countries to be resolved “in a mutually beneficial manner keeping in view the relevant laws and geographic jurisdictions”.

The initiatives build on an umbrella defence cooperation framework concluded during Modi’s visit to Colombo in April last year. Valid for five years, the agreement sought to provide an institutional structure to bilateral defence engagement that had previously centred largely on training, ship visits, exercises and capacity-building initiatives.

India currently trains around 750 Sri Lankan military personnel annually, while the Indian Navy’s BrahMos-equipped stealth frigate INS Udaygiri is in Colombo where Sri Lankan naval personnel are currently undertaking familiarisation activities onboard the warship.