COLOMBO: Sri Lanka Navy’s Offshore Patrol Vessels, SLNS Samudura and SLNS Suranimala, which left for Cochin, India on a goodwill and training mission returned home to Colombo Port Tuesday after successfully completing their tour. Upon arrival, the Commanding Officers of the ships, Captain Jagath Premarathna of SLNS Samudura and Captain Rohitha Abeysinghe of SLNS Suranimala called on the Commander Western Naval Area, Rear Admiral Niraja Attygalle to discuss the progress of the visit. The two Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) left for Cochin on 4th April and reached the port of Cochin on 6th. During the ships’ stay from 6th to 9th April, the Commanding Officers of the two ships called on several high ranking Indian naval officers in the Southern Naval Command and the visiting Sri Lankan naval personnel took part in a series of naval exercises and visited Indian Navigation School, ASW School, Signal School, SNOW and Gunnery School. The prime purpose of the visit was to provide essential sea passage experience for the officer under trainees to assimilate the class room instructions with the demands of a naval career in an operational environment, the Navy said. The ocean passage was joined by 43 Midshipmen.
Sri Lanka Navy vessels are scheduled to visit foreign ports on ocean training passages biannually, in addition to goodwill missions and fleet exercises. The Ocean passage is a culmination and materialization of the Commander of the Navy s initiative to upgrade the training quality and operational readiness of the Sri Lanka Navy in meeting the vast challenges of our maritime domain.
