Hangars, airfields, but where is the Tiger air force?

Sandeep Unnithan New Delhi, January 14, 2009

With the Sri Lankan security forces closing in on the LTTE forces bottled up in Mullativu, questions are being raised on the fate of its tiny two-aircraft air wing.
Last Saturday Sri Lankan forces captured the fourth and longest airstrip which the Tigers used to launch air attacks on Sri Lanka. Also captured near the Mullaitivu jungles were two armoured hangars which the rebels used to store the aircraft. But the airfield, ringed by a 300 metre barbed wire fence, was empty.

Security experts believe the two Czech-built propeller-driven Zlin Z-143 aircraft which the Air Tigers operated could have been dismantled and pulled into the jungles of Mullaitivu where the entire Tiger leadership is boxed in.

"If the Lankan forces start combing the jungles they may discover the aircraft," says Colonel R. Hariharan (retired) former head of military intelligence in the Indian Peace Keeping Force. He noted that the retreating Tigers had pulled roofing off the houses of their erstwhile capital Kilinochi before retreating into the jungle. "It is possible that this roofing is being used for building bunkers and shelters inside the jungles," he says.

The LTTE has used their two-aircraft air wing in eight attacks since March 2007, becoming the world's only guerrilla organisation to field an air wing. Most of the attacks have been of propaganda rather than tactical value and the last attack was reported in October last year.

With the loss of their main airstrip, which at 1.5 km length and 20 metres width is the longest captured so far, the Tiger air wing's future is in doubt. However Hariharan does not rule out the possibility of the Tigers using the A-39 highway, which remains in territory still controlled by them, to launch sorties.

Courtesy: India Today Online

[R. Hariharan comments: Actually one more equally well organised airstrip has been found in the jungles around the Iranamadu lake. This airstrip and Mullaitivu airstrip were the two main airstrips used for operations by the LTTE. However, though the aircraft can possibly use the A39 road, it is unlikely as in the current proactive offensive building up against the Mullaitivu defences it would be suicidal to use the Air Tiger resources.]