New Air Force Commander assumes duties on Monday

Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana has been appointed the 18th Commander of the SLAF, Air Force.

He received his letter of appointment from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his appointment will come into effect from Monday Nov 2.

He has been promoted to the rank of Air Marshal.

He will assume duties as the new Commander of the Air Force on Monday following the retirement of Air Marshal Sumangala Dias.

Air Vice Marshal Pathirana joined the Air Force on July 2, 1985. Upon completion of his Basic Ground Training at SLAF Diyatalawa, he had secured the award for the Best Cadet of the 14th Officer Cadets Intake.

He is a past student of Dharmaraja College in Kandy.

In 2002, he became the first Sri Lankan Air Force Officer to obtain the Masters in Operational Art and Science awarded by the Air University, Alabama in the United States.

Two years later, he successfully completed his Second Master’s Degree (Defence Studies) in Management at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.

He also served as the first Defence Attaché at the Embassy of Sri Lanka in the Russian Federation from 2007 to 2009.

He subsequently served at the Ministry of Defence as the Deputy Military Liaison Officer from 2009 to 2011.

Air Vice Marshal Pathirana was appointed as the Director Air Operations in 2017 and he served in this position until being appointed as the Chief of Staff in 2019.