Commander of the Air Force (Sri Lanka)

The Commander of the Air Force is the professional head of the Sri Lanka Air Force. The current Commander of the Air Force is Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana. It is a position comparable to that of Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Air Force. The Chief of Staff of the Air Force acts as a deputy commander within the command structure.

All serving air force commanders have been of the rank of air marshal, promoted to the honorary rank of air chief marshal on retirement or on promotion to Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

List of commanders

No.	Picture	Commander	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Unit	Ref.
1		Air Commodore Graham Bladon (1899–1967)	5 May 1950	24 October 1958	8 years, 172 days	–
2		Air Vice Marshal John Barker (1910–2004)	24 October 1958	12 November 1962	4 years, 19 days	–
3		Air Vice Marshal Rohan Amerasekera (1916–1974)	12 November 1962	31 December 1970	8 years, 49 days	No. 2 Squadron SLAF
4		Air Vice Marshal Deshamanya Paddy Mendis (1933–2022)	1 January 1971	1 November 1976	5 years, 305 days	No. 2 Squadron SLAF No. 5 Squadron SLAF
5		Air Vice Marshal Harry Goonatilake (1929–2008)	1 November 1976	30 April 1981	4 years, 180 days	No. 2 Squadron SLAF
6		Air Vice Marshal Dick Perera	1 May 1981	30 April 1985	3 years, 364 days	No. 2 Squadron SLAF
7		Air Marshal Walter Fernando	1 May 1985	31 July 1990	5 years, 91 days	No. 4 Squadron SLAF
8		Air Marshal Terry Gunawardena	1 August 1990	16 February 1994	3 years, 199 days	No. 2 Squadron SLAF
9		Air Marshal Oliver Ranasinghe	17 February 1994	5 March 1998	4 years, 16 days	No. 5 Squadron SLAF
10		Air Marshal Jayalath Weerakkody	6 March 1998	15 July 2002	4 years, 131 days	No. 2 Squadron SLAF No. 4 Squadron SLAF
11		Air Marshal Donald Perera	16 July 2002	11 June 2006	3 years, 330 days	No. 2 Squadron SLAF
12		Marshal of the Air Force Roshan Goonetileke (born 1956)	11 June 2006	27 February 2011	4 years, 261 days	No. 4 Squadron SLAF
13		Air Marshal Harsha Abeywickrama	27 February 2011	27 February 2014	3 years, 0 days	No. 5 Squadron SLAF
14		Air Marshal Kolitha Gunathilake	27 February 2014	15 June 2015	1 year, 108 days	No. 2 Squadron SLAF
15		Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinghala (born 1961)	15 June 2015	12 September 2016	1 year, 89 days	No. 4 Squadron SLAF
16		Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathy	13 September 2016	29 May 2019	2 years, 258 days	No. 4 Squadron SLAF
17		Air Marshal Sumangala Dias	30 May 2019	2 November 2020	1 year, 156 days	No. 6 Squadron SLAF
18		Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana	2 November 2020	29 June 2023	2 years, 239 days	No. 5 Squadron SLAF No. 10 Squadron SLAF	–
19		Air Marshal Udeni Rajapaksa	30 June 2023	Incumbent	182 days	No. 2 Squadron SLAF No. 8 Squadron SLAF	–

See also

• Sri Lanka Air Force
• Commander of the Army
• Commander of the Navy