SLNS Sayura (P620)

SLNS Sayura (Sayura, in Sinhalese: Sea) is the former flagship and an offshore patrol vessel (OPV) of the Sri Lanka Navy.

SLNS Sayura

SLNS Sayura, at Colombo Harbour in March 2017
History
India
Name	INS Sarayu
Builder	Hindustan Shipyard Limited
Launched	16 October 1989
Commissioned	8 October 1991
Decommissioned	1 November 2000
Homeport	INS Virbahu, Visakhapatnam
Fate	Sold to Sri Lanka Navy 1 November 2000
Sri Lanka
Name	SLNS Sayura
Acquired	1 November 2000
Commissioned	2000
Homeport	SLN Dockyard, Trincomalee
Status	Active
General characteristics
Class and type	Sukanya-class patrol vessel[1]
Displacement	1,890 tons (full load)[1]
Length	101 m (331 ft)
Beam	11.5 m (38 ft)
Propulsion	2 × diesel engines, 12,800 bhp (9,540 kW), 2 shafts
Speed	22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Range	7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	140 (incl 15 officers)
Sensors and processing systems	1 × Racal Decca 2459 search radar 1 BEL 1245 navigation radar
Armament	1 × 40 mm, 60-cal Bofors anti-aircraft gun 2 × 12.7 mm machine guns
Aircraft carried	1 HAL Chetak

She was formerly INS Sarayu, a Sukanya-class patrol vessel of the Indian Navy sold to Sri Lanka in 2000. She was upgraded with new armament in India before being delivered to the Sri Lanka Navy. India also committed to providing maintenance and refit of the ship.^[2]

Operations

Sayura was tasked with deep-sea patrolling both within the Sri Lankan territorial waters and in international waters to curb arms smuggling by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). During the 4th Ealam war after undergoing a major refit in India, Sayura, along with other OPVs of the Sri Lanka Navy, successfully intercepted several ships smuggling arms for the LTTE. In all these cases the ships were sunk when the LTTE Sea Tigers attacked the naval vessels with mortars. Sayura also participated in the Cadex 2009 military training exercises with the Indian Navy after the war ended. ^[3]

In 2017, it sailed to Langkawi to take part in LIMA 2017 with a detachment of the newly formed Marine battalion.^[4]

Commanding officers

The first Sri Lankan Navy officer to Captain the ship was then Captain SMAJ Perera USP, psc.

Since then it has been commanded by:

• Captain (Later CMDE while commanding) AARA Dias RSP, USP, psc, MSc(DS)

• Captain AR Amarasinghe RSP, USP, psc

• Captain RC Wijegunaratne WV, RWP, RSP, psn

• Captain DMS Dissanayake RWP, psc

• Captain (Later CMDE while commanding) KKVPH De Silva WWV, USP

• CMDE SWC Mohotty MSc (DS) Mgmt)

• CMDE NAN Sarathsena RSP, MSc (DS) Mgmt.

• CMDE WASS Perera RWP, RSP, USP, psc

INS Sarayu

Commissioned 10 April 1991, INS Sarayu (P54) served with the Indian Navy until she was sold to Sri Lanka on 1 November 2000.