Sri Lanka to reduce army by a third as financial crunch tightens

In response to criticism that military spending exceeded the budgetary allotments for healthcare and education in 2023, Sri Lanka on Friday announced a plan to cut the size of its military in half by 2030 in order to create a technically and tactically sound and well-balanced defence force.

The country will slash its army by a third to 135,000 personnel by next year and to 100,000 by 2030. “The overall aim of the strategic blueprint is to broach a technically and tactically sound and well-balanced defence force by the year 2030 in order to meet upcoming security challenges,” the statement quoting the state minister of defence Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon said.

The share of the defence sector in Sri Lanka’s total expenditure peaked in 2021, at 2.31 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), but fell to 2.03 per cent last year, according to Colombo-based think tank Verite Research.

In early December, Sri Lankan media outlets announced that the Sri Lankan Army had decided to reduce troop numbers by 16,000.