In support of the armed forces there are three paramilitary units functioning under purview of the Ministry of Defence, which are the Special Task Force, the Civil Defence Force and the Sri Lanka Coast Guard[34][35]
Since indepen
dence from Britain in 1948, the primary focus of the armed forces has been on internal security, due to three major insurgencies, including a 30 year long conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by 32 countries. Due to this conflict the armed forces had expanded to its current size and where in a continuous mobilized state for the last 30 years. Unique in modern military history, this was a low intensity conflict which progressed into a bloody conflict which included elements of conventional warfare as well as classic guerrilla and asymmetric warfare, with pitch battles taking place in land and at sea, later briefly moving to the air and unprecedented use of suicide attacks by a violent non-state actor. Although it drew in other regional countries into the conflict directly (India) or indirectly (Pakistan, China); the conflict itself did not result in any territorial or constitutional changes, it resulted in the deaths of 80,000-100,000 people.[36]
In a rare occurrence in modern history the conflict that had 30 years of constant fighting, halted several times briefly by failed peace overtures, ended by a military outcome with a comprehensively defeat of the LTTE May 2009.[37]. Since 2002 the Sri Lankan armed forces have also taken part in several peace keeping missions with the UN.
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