Stage Set to Launch 'Exercise - Cormorant Strike VIII - 2017' from Minneriya

The joint tri-service Field Training Exercise (FTX), 'Exercise - Cormorant Strike VIII - 2017', organized by the Army for the 8th consecutive year with 2675 Army, Navy and Air Force troops, including 62 foreign military participants and observers, will take place covering the Eastern Province.

It is to be inaugurated from the mock Operational Headquarters at Minneriya on Sunday (3 September) after a brief induction ceremony.

Using special operational tactics, 2108 infantrymen, including largely the Commandos, Special Forces and Mechanized Infantry Regiment troops of the Army, 370 sailors and 197 airmen, together with those foreign military men and observers from Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Russia, USA, Brazil, Sudan, Iraq, Israel, Oman, Turkey, Iran and Kenya are scheduled to join the mega Exercise.

Major General Anura Jayasekara works as the Exercise Director while Brigadier Nishantha Herath, Brigadier Sujeewa Senarath Yapa, Brigadier Uditha Bandara, Colonel Chandra Jayaweera, Colonel Sujeewa Hettiarachchi and Colonel Chandana Wickremasinghe serve as Deputy Directors in the Exercise.

The Field Training Exercise ends on September 24 at Trincomalee after a mammoth joint display on the previous day, prior to the closing ceremony.