The newly inducted sniffer dogs of the Air Dog Unit (ADU) at Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) base Katunayake passed out last week in a parade held with the participation of the Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana.
The 20 Air Dogs who passed out were inducted to the SLAF in 2020 are from the Netherlands. Five Belgian Malinois, five Labrador Retrievers, five German Shepherds and five English Springer Spaniels consisted of the newly inducted group.
They are specially trained as sniffer dogs to detect narcotic substances and will be deployed at international airports.
These air dogs and their handlers were specially trained with joint support and expertise of the Sri Lanka Police Kennel Division in Asgiriya and the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board. During the training they were skilled through the use of live samples of explosive and narcotic substances for the first time. The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka provides financial assistance for the training. The SLAF ADU has a long history of service to the nation. Initially set up on August 23, 1972 the Air Dog Unit was re-designated as the No 48 Regiment Wing in 2012 and further re-designated as the Air Dog Wing in early 2013. Now the unit is known as the SLAF ADU.
The Unit imported 12 Air Dogs and 17 air dogs from England in 1985 and in 1998.
In 2006 another 12 Air Dogs were inducted from Germany and 10 more Air Dogs from the Netherlands in 2013.
The unit is currently commanded by Wing Commander Niroshan Kumarasinghe and it functions under the purview of the Director- Ground Operations.
ADU actively involves in air field defence operations, search operations at all international airports of the country, search and rescue operations during situations of natural disasters and explosive/narcotic detection operations.
Last week parade was attended by the Director Ground Operations, Air Vice Marshal Camillus Labrooy, the Southern Air Commander and Base Commander of SLAF Base Katunayake, Air Vice Marshal Udeni Rajapaksa and a limited number of senior officers of the SLAF due to health restrictions which are in place.
The passing out parade of Air Dogs at the (SLAF) base Katunayake (Pix: Gayan Pushpika)