Priyantha Gunasinghe: Latest News

The Sri Lanka Air Force No 10 Fighter Squadron or the Kfir Squadron marked 27 years on Thursday (5).It was founded on 5th January 1996 with the induction of six new graceful tailless delta Kfir C2s based at SLAF Katunayake under the command of Squadron Leader Priyantha Gunasinghe. The Squadron was reinforced in the year 2000 with the arrival of another nine Kfir C2s and C7s enhancing the fleet up to fifteen fighters. The Kfir was developed by Israel as a multirole all weather day night fighter, which satisfied almost all the fighter capabilities of SLAF’s through Battlefield Air Strike, Air Interception, Air Interdiction, Maritime Air strikes with precision and deadly force.  At the outset, the No 10 Fighter Squadron was strengthened with four pilots, four engineering officers and seventy technicians, who were trained by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and instructor pilots from Israel Air Force. The present Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana was first Officer Commanding Operations and succeeded as the second Commanding Officer from 7th of June 2000.