(UDHAYAM, COLOMBO) – Sri Lanka Navy’s Offshore Patrol Vessels, SLNS ‘Samudura’ and SLNS ‘Suranimila’ which left for Cochin, India on a goodwill and and training mission on 04th of this month, returned to the Colombo port yesterday (11) after a successful completion of tour events.
Upon arrival, the Commanding Officers of the ships, Captain Jagath Premarathna and Captain Rohitha Abeysinghe called on the Commander Western Naval Area, Rear Admiral Niraja Attygalle to discuss the progress of the visit.
The two ships reached the port of Cochin on 6th of this month and their Commanding Officers called on several high ranking Indian naval officers in the Southern Naval Command. Further, the ships’ crew took part in a series of naval exercises and visited a number of training schools in India, during this tour.
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 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.