TAF vs SLAF - A Realistic Analysis

Once again, LTTE jubilate their foreign living funders (so called Diasporas) with an array of air raids done to Mannar and Colombo. In this attempt, they first did a destructive (? not sure) attack to Mannar military base to get the military eye focused on to Mannar, and then they sneak their way to the main target at Colombo. That sounds like a good plan.

According to the media information, two bombs have fallen to Thalladi, Mannar where our Army base is located and then those two LTTE aircrafts were headed toward President House while bombing Kelanathissa power plant on their way. This drama triggered the Colombo air defense system, which minimized the possible damages. However both of these LTTE aircrafts were managed to sail their way back safelyto marked their 11th victorious air raid on our sky (Yes, it is a shame). This incident raised lots of questions and was an eye opener for public to question the accountability of our Air Marshal WDRMJ Goonetileke’s exclusive interview given below...

Q: You are confident that the LTTE air capability is no longer a threat to the SLAF?
A: Yes we can say that we can deal with them effectively. Last time they came and dropped bombs in Weli Oya. That was the safest location they could reach and drop bombs and return.

What is this Z-143 and who is TAF and SLAF

The Z-143 is a light aircraft, famous for pilot training. Its great flight characteristics and additional instruments make the ZLIN easy to fly at night or (in) low visibility conditions. It is reported that Tamil Tiger Air Force (TAF) is having 3 or 4 modified versions of this aircrafts (They have purchased them during the peace time with the help of either Norwegian “piece” makers or some NGOs). Today TAF has become the first terrorist outfit in the world to have an air force associate with them. In the field of general aviation, this aircraft is incompetent even competing with a much simpler and lighter aircrafts such as Cessna or Piper. However the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF), a much stronger rival, is struggling in big time to protect their air space against this enemy today.

The ZLIN is an amazingly low grade flying machine (with Max. Speed ~ 267 km/h and Endurance ~ 5 hours and 10 minutes and Range with max fuel ~1000km). The TAF is using it to their maximum advantage while SLAF is struggling to fight it with much more superior modern state of art technologies, weapons and aircrafts. They have aircraft such as F-7Gs (with Max. Speed ~ 2,175 km/h), Mi-24 (with Max. Speed ~ 335 km/h), Kefir and MIG 21-27. It is said that Mi 24 has recently been upgraded with modern Israeli FLIR and electronic warfare systems and radar, with fully functional helmet mounted target tracking systems, and AAMs as well. So with all these it is very interesting to analyze and see “why we cannot” and “how we can improve” on counter attacking these so called low flying tin-cans.

What limitations SLAF is having today

Systematic – It is said that SALF needed to follow a lengthy/ time consuming approval process followed by a series of checkup before taking off an aircraft. This may not only delay the mission start but also earns time for TAF to go back and disappear themselves into the north jungles. The approval processes may have its reasons and I don’t have any questions having it for all general missions too. But the mission related to TAF is an exceptional one. Therefore that need some special adjustments and creative planning to improve our effectiveness against this enemy.

Leadership – It is said that media can make a patriot out of an enemy or wise versa. However if the incompetency of the SLAF leader is what putting everybody at risk today, then this will be our last chance to correct it. Because in the next time, LTTE will make sure to do it right and the result of it may even be the end of this WAR.

Equipment – The main weapons we have for air to air combat are F-7 (Chinese version of Mig 21) and the upgraded MI 24.

The F-7 have a very basic radar system (the range is relatively shorter ~ 30 km) which makes it nearly impossible to find and attack a low flying aircraft at night. It just has only the “close air-to-air agile combat” ability. It does not have various other advance options to be effective in an Air-to-Air combat (simply it can attack another plane right in front of it). So to me, F-7 is not a effective weapon against ZLIN. It has to have some luck (or some extra-ordinary ability), for you to find / hit / destroy a low flying zlin in a dark night uisng an F-7.

The MI-24 is relatively a better (radar coverage is ~ 10 km). However we may need to have at least 10-15 Mi 24 helicopters to increase the probability of finding the enemy in a random search. The way LTTE operate ZLIN will challenge the Mi-24 radar system as it may not detect a low flying air craft at a distance. But once engaged, a MI 24 has a better chance of destroying a ZLIN, with it advance weapons, low flying ability and slow speed, than a F-7.

Analysis of the current situation?

If the government of Sri Lanka or our military hand is looking to buy more expensive weapons / advance aircraft to sail over this challenging enemy. I bet we will end up spending all our money yet LTTE will keep outsmarting us. We spent enough money over this already and none of those counter measures took, worked but became white elephants. SLAF needs to understand that it is not about weapons but about smartness what matters here. I have no doubt that ZLIN is a very creative and innovative selection from TAF side. The LTTE is keep on effectively outsmarting SLAF over and over with their "kurumbatti machine" (name is as per our mad, uneducated media). But SLAF is still not getting it, that is the problem (for me).

So buying new euipment will encourage the enemy to be more advanced next time. It will be easier to beat him in the current context, by smartly closing and openning loop holes in the current system, than in a whole new context. Today, SLAF is trying to change the pillow cover to cure thier eye ache (or whatever).

Right now there is a high demand to install a 3d radar system to fight against this tiny enemy. I think we needs at least 4 radars (there are some which can trace up to 90 km) to cover up the whole island. I am not sure how costly they are, or how messy their radar images can be, but to me they look very expensive (unnecessarily). In the recent incident the ground soldiers of the FDL noticed these planes well over before it reaches Colombo, so then we have detected the planes. Then, why we need a much more expensive radar system, is it just to trace the planes? Again what if LTTE may have fixed Radar Jammer already? Again what guarantee we have to say that LTTE can't destroy the radar units via a ground attack? Let’s assume that we have the radar system in place, but still a radar cannot gun down a plane? Can it? It is like having the Plan-B, without the Plan-A.

From the other hand, it can be the world's most expensive and sophisticated radar system. We can have radars also mounted along the costal line (range is ~3km? or limited). But to effectively track a low flying aircraft with a radar system is not practical. It is given that the earth’s sphere shape and the high land diversity of Sri Lanka (rivers, mountains etc).

I know that all tall building in Colombo is having cheap anti aircraft guns mounted now. But they seem to be capable of effectively “missing” the target all the time. So anti aircraft guns (we have) are not a very good option to fight with ZLIN either. I hate to say this, this ENEMY IS A SMART ONE and if you are to beat him, WE HAVE TO OUTSMART HIM. It is a chess game, no matter how many times you change the board, if you are not smart enough, then you will ended up losing the game. In this case buying more equipment is like changing the board.

I think it requires a combine effort and a effective utilization of current resources to bring down this tiny master. I am not a military expert but these are my two cents..

• -If they plan well, outsmart them with superior plans
• -If we cannot break into their intelligent secrets, break into them by outsmarting them.
• -If our LRRP cannot penetrate into Kilinochchi, penetrate into it by outsmarting them.
• -If they manage to hide their aircrafts, reveal them by outsmarting them.
• -If they manage to sneak their way to Colombo, outsmart them by catching them.
• -If they have radar jammers to find their way, outsmart them by blocking their ways.
• -If you cannot bribe Tamils, outsmart them by bribing them

It is only by outsmarting our enemy that we can win here and not by buying new weapons or equipments. If you choose the second, then we can delay the next attack but won't be able to prevent it.

In my mind our first goal has to be to locate the ZLIN base. We don’t have to wait till they attack again to do that? Today the LTTE activities are limited to killinochchi, which is a 625 square kilometers area. It is just 25 Km wide land area. It cannot be that hard, given the things we did before (SLAF look at SLA). Unfortunately we are not focusing on doing that. We always try to spend more money over defending us against ZLIN but do little over offending TAF.

Enough is enough and this is the time to stand tall ..

Long rangers owe the future

.....Today, as LTTE is using their famous civilian shields against the advancing troops, SL Army is correctly utilizing their deep penetrating units to break through that shield. Right now, LRRP is operated on reconnaissance and combat patrols, to obtain highly vital intelligence, or to perform highly dangerous raids and ambushes. These brave soldiers penetrate through rebel civilians and live in jungles for days and nights collecting intelligent news. Some time they fade themselves out among civilian, looking for their next target. Their success on far too dangerous operations and the extraordinary kill ratios has given that vital support the SL Army is desperately needed at this juncture.  To me, the success of this war is heavily depends on the mastery we shown on utilizing our deep penetrating units. How well we use them, the sooner the end of this war will be......

Perhaps, for the first time in the modern world, a guerilla war is beginning to end. A terrorist outfit who fought for many decades is taking their last breath. The experts who argued negatively about the war have changed now. Today they say “The LTTE can be defeated militarily”.  However now these experts are searching desperately for something to earn their next living. These war/ political experts have found a new mantra now, they say “These Tamil terrorists can be defeated militarily, but it remains unclear how the government would pacify and control the large Tamil-speaking areas in the north”. But according to the way it is progessing now, you never knows when they have to stop chanting this mantra and have to look for the next new mantra.

We know that we can defeat this terrorist outfit now. However, that could in my opinion is equal to killing every Tamil in the north and east as well. One thing is clear. We cannot isolate the terrorist from the civilians. That also means wiping out the terrorist equals to wiping out the Tamils. So after all the new mantra that all these experts use to chant these days is having some meaning too.. So, where are we now, how we can win this war then?

I think, we have the answer with our deep penitrating units. At this dawn Sri Lankan army is patrolling around the inner skirt of Kilinochchi, the strong holds town based in far end corner of north. We fought this war many times before but failed until this time. For the first time in the history of this war SL Army has introduced a new unit called LRRP so called long rangers. They are a lonely unit consist of four to six silent men, equipped with modern day state of art technologies. This unit has mastered the covert operations against the rebels in the north. They can successfully penetrate deep into the jungles and assassinate key LTTE figures, hiding in those concrete bunkers.

According to my humble view point, the long rangers owe the future of this war. We will have to deploy more and more LRRP units in the near future. 

Today, as LTTE is using their famous civilian shields against the advancing troops, SL Army is correctly utilizing their deep penetrating units to break through that shield. Right now, LRRP is operated on reconnaissance and combat patrols, to obtain highly vital intelligence, or to perform highly dangerous raids and ambushes. These brave soldiers penetrate through rebel civilians and live in jungles for days and nights collecting intelligent news. Some time they fade themselves out among civilian, looking for their next target. Their success on far too dangerous operations and the extraordinary kill ratios has given that vital support the SL Army is desperately needed at this juncture.  To me, the success of this war is heavily depends on the mastery we shown on utilizing our deep penetrating units. How well we use them, the sooner the end of this war will be..

Finally, as long as Sri Lanka gets rain, we will have forests, as long as we have forests, terrorist will hide, as long as the terrorists are hiding, the terrorist will attack, as long as the terrorists are attacking, the war will not be over, as long as a war, the LRRP is needed. So even after the war, long ranger will rule the north and east jungles. You will hear about them living among civilians collecting intelligent news. It will be a regular scenery to watchful eyes, to see units of four silent men scrolling out/ in through the dark dry zone forests in the future. 

So as I told you before, very soon these political experts and military experts have to look for their next mantra. In the same time LRRP units will have more and more works to do, at least for next ten years, no matter when the war will be over.

On our way to defeat LTTE?

North battle front, as it stand today

After many decades of war, now we started seeing a light, a light that can ultimately lead us to settle (believe me, I hate to say that is a political settlement) this ongoing problem in the north. Currently, Sri Lankan Army is waiting at the edge of Killinochchi town, waiting to fire their first shot. Everyone believe that the moral of the SL soldiers are at its peak, where as the moral of the LTTE is at its lowest. But still the hardcore enemy units yet to face the army with their maximum power.

Captured areas

Yes, troops are doing well in the battle fields, and ironically everything seems to be falling in our way, favoring us. The moral of the tropes and the gun power, all right. But we shouldn't forget that the serpent is still alive. Today, we are sitting on a volcano, which mean a one big blast can turn everything upside down. I know it is merely impossible to LTTE to stop the current offensive operation through a military fight-back even with their strongest units. However, they can delay it for couple of months. Apart from that, we need to remember that it is a war fare with a guerrilla unit. It is said that, when you are fighting with guerrillas, it does not matter how many military wins you gain, if you lost once, then you are considered a defeated, and guerrillas become the winners. This alone is enough for us to understand the importance of not losing the grip till the very last end.

But I am getting frustrate as I started to see that we are releasing the grip little by little while trying to celebrate a victory, which we haven't gain yet. If you look at the three items that I have listed below, you will notice, that still there are things that are not in our control. These are some important but vastly neglected (at least to my view point) areas that Sri Lankan military must look into...

1. Are we really killing terrorist as much as we exploit our gun power?
   
2. Where is the LTTE suicide attackers squad, there were 4000 at the start of this war, did we destroyed all 4000?
   
3. We win the military war, but can we still get defeated in the political war?

The effectiveness of our gun power, are we really killing terrorist as much as we exploit our gun power?

It is obvious that LTTE defense strategy has two goals

1. They are building new defenses to delay army from marching towards their strong holds
   
2. They are trying to get as much carders escaped from the offensive attacks while making us waste billions on military spending.

used to escape from Army Attacks

We know that LTTE is using this new strategy of digging the ground deep, making zigzagging trench lines, running from one place to another, it is obvious that they create these not only to use as a wall against the advancing troops (specially against Armoured Corps) but also to use as a escaping option, even under heavy firing with minimum damages to their carders. However on the other hand SL Army units such as DPU (Deep Penitrating Unit) can use the same to their advantage too.

Anyway, if LTTE is not losing the man power as much as we think they are, it is going to be hard at the end for us to get that easy win. They will deploy all their men for a final fight, possibly with the added support of some chemical weapons, air force (I mean that hutu hutu planes) too. That can make our win, a not a win. But the good point is that as long as we have a long term plan (I am sure we have), which make us stand a step ahead of them, it will not stop us from winning this war. We will win this war, but they can cause delays to it. But in the other hand, more time we take to finish this war mean more money we spend over this, is that a strategy too? Can this war be a well calculated withdrawal plan from LTTE side. That mean LTTE withdraw, while army is attacking, until we finish our money in the government treasury. Because even if government can corner the LTTE, they can still hide themselves among civilians and escape.

In another aspect, if they are going to lose it at the end anyway, then why are they trying to delay our win? Is it an indication of a hidden agenda? I know it is not uncommon these days for a soldier to see LTTE carders fleeing. But why?? Are they really afraid of us??? or are they preserving their carders?? Let's take that as a point to think about little more...

East is fully cleared now

If you look at the numbers, it is not hard to realize that SL Army has expertise this war now. They are damaging the LTTE without much damage to their side. Still all units need to be at their peak till the very end for us to avoid a possible MAJOR, MAJOR disaster at the last part of this war, by a possible counter attack from the LTTE side.

How many of them still remain in the LTTE suicide attacker's squad, there were 4000 at the start of this war, did we destroyed all 4000?

This is one of the strongest points that LTTE has to their advantage. Right now we all know that they are not successful in launching attacks on civil areas in the southern part of Sri Lanka. In simple term, we don’t see bus bombs anymore, as counter attacks to offensive operation in the north. But is it really because that they don’t have that secret network (we know that army arrested all key player of this game) they used before or is it just one of their new strategy? What if they are waiting till a right moment to use their suicide squad in massive scales? What if they are preparing for a sudden major attack (TNA MPs?) if so, are we ready for that? The President is the most important, second is the army commander with Gotabaya/ Basil Rajapakse to follow up, these are the most import key figures that drive this force.

It is like a chess game, if you get the king, no matter what, this movement will turn in 180 degrees tomorrow and go in the complete opposite direction. We need to have our intelligent units look in to these area as well. The question is what plan the LTTE is having, with their suicide bomber squad..

We win it militarily, but can we still get defeated in the political war?

Army Commander addressing a key US Military Group

(SL Army is becoming the world's best unit for guerrilla war fare)

LTTE intelligent unit is surely not aiming toward gaining a military victory now. I think their main goal is to gain a political win, they have their diplomats deployed all around the world working hard, while most of our ambosaders sleeping in the day after parting at night (We lost the seat on the UN Human Rights Council). I know LTTE is secretly raising funds for US presidential candidate Barak Obama. As far as it stands today, Barak Obama has a very high possibility of winning this election too. But from our side the government's diplomats are too very strong. I can see they are laying their plans too. China, India, Russia, and Iran hopefully will stand in our side. But if US stand against us, there going to be some major problems in industries like IT and Garment. They are the ones who heavily depends on US market. So a possible trade band from US, can make tens of thousands of professionals thrown on to the road (it is too early for a such conclusion though). As far as the government diplomatic strategies are concern, I have a great faith on them, and I can see they are thinking too.. So it is going to be a chess game again. Let’s hope for the best.

Sri Lankan MPs Fighting in the Parliament

Now it is proving, that we can win the war no matter what and also let's assume that we can win the faith of the global communities as well but when it comes to getting all greedy Sri Lankan politicians to act together, that is where the real fight going to start. Unfortunately as it stands today it is going to be a fight in between Sinhalese vs. Sinhalese. Who is going to support which side in this war??

It is going to be an interesting future... But at the end if north settle down to a provincial council unit. It is no matter who comes to power in Eastern or North those two chief ministers are going to be the government most loyal ministers. That is given that weapon used by ltte would still hang around every corner of these two provinces..

Is the legendary emperor Ravana a myth?

I say NO, let me explain why..

In Sri Lanka you can find so many names of places, cities, waterfall, mountains and folklore that have direct relation to the story that you read in Ramayanaya. While having all these stories around me, and failing to link each other with reasonable facts, I am still not convinced that Ravana is a myth..

As an example there is a city with the name "Nuwara-Eliya" which assumed to be the city of which Hanuman (Monkey king) burnt with his tail. The local villagers in Sri Lanka talk about this story. They say that the name of that city originated after this incident. The Ramayana also has a similar story to back this up...

There is a waterfall is Sri Lanka with the name Ravana-Ella which assumed to be the place where Ravana kept Seetha (Wife of Rama) after taking her from India. In Ramayana, it claim that Ravana kept Seetha in a flower garden with beautiful waterfalls.

There is a mountain, and local claim that it is the place where Ravana used to land his flying machine or Dandumonaraya. There is a flying machine that Ramayanaya talk about too..

There is a kingdom of Sri Lanka (second ancient kingdom, according to Mahawamsa) named Polonnaruwa, which assumed to be the place where Ravana’s grandfather lived and meditate. He was a very powerful irishi with the name Pulathisi. The city he lived was called Pulathisi-Pura (Pura stand for City in Sinhalese) and even to date Sri Lankan use this name for that city.

So I can go on and on to show you many evidences in Sri Lanka that can be compared to the stories you read in the Book (Ramayanaya). So what I am trying to highlight here is that we need to find links in between the independently born local stories in Sri Lanka and the book before we claim that Ramayanaya or Ravana is just a myth.

I know that knowing that there is a link alone cannot scientifically prove that Ravana exist or Ramayanaya is true, but it is a handful to stop calling that it is a myth and start aggressively study further..

Aba Film, Where are we??

Good attempt, kiddos to the team..



To start with, I know that I am not going to talk about any good points here, but that is not because that there isn't any but because that I believe talents like constructive criticism more. So I opted to point at some stuff that one can improve.

I would also like to note that this writing is mainly done base on the movie trailers that you can find in you tube. Okay, this comment has done purely focusing on certain areas where I felt that this film has failed to convey the message it trying to convey. let's have a crack at it..

-The music of the movie, I think it is good in most cases but some time it has failed to stage that old, historical, secretive, uncertain feeling, that you get when you read/ talk about a legend. I think in that sense music need little more improvement to reach to that international standard, which Sri Lankan directors always talk about..

-The core part should be the actions of this film. The fighting seen of the movie need lots of improvement too, I think the team that act on most of the fighting seen need at least 100 more times of training before even considering taking those seen that they have put in the actual film. Their movement (Kata = Adimaru) are just childish. I never saw a single movement, that I can be happy about, which shows the characteristic of a matured fighter. I think this director has completely missed that important segment of the film. By looking at what is out there I can say you have just play the fool out of our heritage. These actors have failed to show the smoothness, quality, accuracy that you would expect from an ancient “angam” fighter. I don't think you have done enough research on this..

-The character selection for prince Aba has not work *that* well either.. his voice, look, action are too young, and immature to match the real hero (prince abaya) that lives in Sri Lankan’s mind. Additionally as an example I noticed that when he moves the sword it is like, not he moves the sword, but the sword moves him :-)...

-We are talking about a society that wear costume and capture, train horses/ elephant, and use iron (mean who has invented the technology to extract iron)... OK hold it right there, what does that mean to you?, that mean that this society is a well *seasoned* and civilized one right, okay now.. what does that mean..? that mean you need to think little more than "this" before you putting up that palace for the king, alright?? Additionally you need to be intuitive in weapons selection/ designing too, you are thinking them like vaddas, and that is completely wrong. I think you would have creatively desinged the weapons to show their ivolvement.

I am sure that you have put lots of effort in to this film already, but I think it is not enough. I can give you many example of some choices you have made, that contradict with other stuff that you find in this film.

-Battle field/ castles/ palace - I see a small mistake in there too, apparently I see that mistake in all of the Sinhala movesof this kind. I think Sri Lankan directors got to do lot more research on Sri Lanka battle field/ castle before starting to copying them from Chinese, Indian or American films. You need to think, what it would be like an ancient Sri Lankan battle field? A fight seen in Anuradhapura cannot be like a seen done on a desert land, can it??? Like this film has, is it effective trying to chase down someone while riding on a horse in a place like Anuradhapura?? Is the horse ride effective at all there?? How they would have used hourses/ elephants to their advantage?? What I am trying to say is that think about the land shape/ land diversity, it is not a flat ground that you can ride a house at a super speed and hit hard one on one, face to face (just like in films like troy or ashok does). Film directors need to think creatively and find it.. Because we as viewers need to see how the ancient Sri Lankan would have utilized, taken advantage of the natural barriers around them. But sadly I have never seen any doing it yet. but YES with this start I am sure many will followup..

so overall this is a GREAT ATTEMPT!!

References

Aba Sinhala film at you tube
Aba Sinhala film at you tube
Aba Sinhala film at you tube

What is the difference between Abstract Factory and Builder design patterns?

The two design patterns are fundamentally different. However, when you learn them for the first time, you will see a confusing similarity. So that it will make harder for you to understand them. But if you continue to study eventually, you will get afraid of design patterns too. It is like infant phobia, once you get afraid at your early age, it stays with you forever. So the result would be that you never look back at design patterns again. Let me see whether I can solve this brain teaser for you.

In the image below, you have both design pattern listed in. I am trying to compare the two one on one to identify the similarities. If you observe the figure carefully, you will see an easily understandable color pattern (same color is used to mark the classes that are of similar kind).



Please follow up with the numbers in the image when reading the listing below.

Mark #1: Both patterns have used a generic class as the entry-class. The only difference is the name of the class. One pattern has named it as “Client”, while the other named it as “Director”.
Mark #2: Here again the difference is the class name. It is “AbstractFactory” for one and “Builder” for the other. Additionally both classes are of type abstract.
Mark #3: Once again both patterns have defined two generic (WindowsFactory & ConcreteBuilder) classes. They both have created by inheriting their respective abstract class.
Mark #4: Finally, both seem to produce some kind of a generic output.

Now, where are we? Aren’t they looking almost identical? So then why are we having two different patterns here?

Let’s compare the two again side by side for one last time, but this time, focusing on the differences.

Abstract Factory: Emphasizes a family of product objects (either simple or complex)
Builder: Focuses on constructing a complex object step by step
Abstract Factory: Focus on *what* is made
Builder: Focus on *how* it is made
Abstract Factory: Focus on defining many different types of *factories* to build many *products*, and it is not a one builder for just one product
Builder: Focus on building a one complex but one single *product*
Abstract Factory: Defers the choice of what concrete type of object to make until run time
Builder: Hide the logic/ operation of how to compile that complex object
Abstract Factory: *Every* method call creates and returns different objects
Builder: Only the *last* method call returns the object, while other calls partially build the object
Sometimes creational patterns are complementary: So you can join one or many patterns when you design your system. As an example builder can use one of the other patterns to implement which components get built or in another case Abstract Factory, Builder, and Prototype can use Singleton in their implementations. So the conclusion would be that the two design patterns exist to resolve two type of business problems, so even though they look similar, they are not.

I hope that this shed some light to resolve the puzzle. If you still don’t understand it, then this time it is not you, it has to be me and it is since that I don’t know how to explain it.