Sri Lanka announces plans to downsize military by half by 2030

Sri Lanka announces plans to downsize military by half by 2030

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka on Friday announced plans to reduce the current strength of its military to half by 2030 to build a technically and tactically sound and well-balanced defence force, amid criticism that military expenditure was more than the allocation for health care and education in the 2023 budget.

The Army's strength is to be reduced to 100,000 by the year 2030, down from the current figure of 200,783. The strength would be limited to 135,000 by next year, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.