South Asian Military Experience: SL ARMY TRAINING

When the army was raised in 1949, the need arose to recruit and train officers and soldiers of the newly formed army.The army recruit Training Depot(ARTD) was formed in Diyathalawa on 6th February 1950 foe the purpose of training recruits.The first batch of 114 recruits,passed out from the ARTD on 2nd June 1950.The ARTD was later named as army Training Centre(ATC).but facilities did not exist to train officers,and therefore Officer Cadets were sent to Royal Military Academy(RMA) Sandhurst in the United Kingdom.The first batch of officer Cadets were enlisted to the army on the 10th of october 1949,and were despatched to RMA Sandhurst.Subsequently Officer Cadets were trained Indian Military Academy and Pakistan Military Academy.Overseas training was not sufficient to meet the growing need. Arrangements were then made to train officer Cadets locally.

The first intake of officer Cadets who were earmaked to be trained in Army Training Centre Diyatalawa were enlisted on 16th April 1968.Since then Officer Cadets were locally trained and commissioned.With the expansion and the growing need to train large number of recruits,recruit training was assigned to respective regiments.with this, the ATC was renamed as Sri Lanka Military Academy(SLMA) and since then it is totally utilised for training of officer Cadets.At any one time,five to six hundred officer Cadets are trained in the institution.During a period of two years they are trained in leadership,tactics,weapon training,drill,administration,military law,military accounting systems and academic studies.An intensive course in English language is conducted during the first six months of training to enhance the English knowledge of the Officer Cadets.

The President's & ATC colours presented to the ATC in 1972,

were laid to rest with the change of name to Srilanka Military Academy.

The colours were renamed as SLMA colours and presented by Her Excellency Chandrika Bandaranayaka kumarathunga the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of sri lanka on 21st June 1997 at Diyatalawa.