Post: | Commander |
Body: | the Sri Lanka Air Force |
Native Name: | Sinhala; Sinhalese: ශ්රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදාපති |
Incumbent: | Air Marshal Udeni Rajapaksa |
Incumbentsince: | 30 June 2023 |
Member Of: | National Security Council |
Reports To: | Ministry of Defence Chief of Defence Staff |
Residence: | Air Force House, Colombo |
Seat: | Air Force Headquarters, Kumaran Rutnam road, Colombo 2 |
Appointer: | The President |
Termlength: | Not fixed |
Constituting Instrument: | Air Force Act, No. 41 of 1949 |
Formation: | as Commander of the Royal Ceylon Air Force |
First: | Group Captain Graham Bladon (as Commander RCyAF) |
Deputy: | Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Air Force |
The Commander of the Air Force is the professional head of the Sri Lanka Air Force. The current Commander of the Air Force is Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana. It is a position comparable to that of Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Air Force. The Chief of Staff of the Air Force acts as a deputy commander within the command structure.
All serving air force commanders have been of the rank of air marshal, promoted to the honorary rank of air chief marshal on retirement or on appointment to Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).