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Sea Tigers AI simulator
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Hub AI
Sea Tigers AI simulator
(@Sea Tigers_simulator)
Sea Tigers
The Sea Tigers (Tamil: கடற்புலிகள் Kaţaṛpulikaḷ) was the naval wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the Sri Lankan Civil War. It was founded in 1984. The Sea Tigers had a number of small but effective suicide bomber vessels. During its existence it had gained a reputation as a capable adversary for the Sri Lankan Navy. During the civil war, the Sea Tigers had sunk at least 29 Sri Lankan small inshore patrol boats, 20 Dvora-class fast patrol boats, 3 gunboats, 2 large surveillance command ships, and one freighter.[citation needed]
The Sea Tigers were led by Soosai, with their main base at Mullaitivu, on the north-eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Their last base was taken when the Sri Lanka Army captured Chalai in Mullaitivu in February 2009.
The LTTE was dominated by members with its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran being a Melongi Karaiyar. This caste were traditional fishermen living in the northern and eastern coastal areas of the island, with a strong traditional knowledge on seafaring and the waterways of the Palk Strait. Over the years members of this community had developed strong relations with other communities in the coastal regions of Tamil Nadu, engaging in the lucrative trade of smuggling contraband during the periods of import restrictions during poor economic period following Ceylon's independence from British rule in 1948.
In 1983, the Indian Research and Analysis Wing established training camps Tamil Nadu to train and arm Tamil insurgents in Sri Lanka. The rebels found it easy to travel back to Sri Lanka from training camps and smuggled in their supplies from India via small crafts cross the Palk Strait. With the Sri Lanka Navy intercepting these crafts, Prabhakaran ordered the formation of maritime wing within the LTTE in 1984 tasked with smuggling personnel and equipment between the LTTE's bases in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, in particular Jaffna. A year later these crafts manned by LTTE cadres now known as Sea Tigers had been evading naval patrol crafts began mounting machine guns with which they began engaging the navy in gun battles at sea.
In 1994, Colonel Soosai who had been a deputy district commander was appointed by Prabhakaran as the head of the Sea Tigers. In 1994, the Sea Tigers were able to score notable victories when it sank the offshore patrol vessel of the navy SLNS Sagarawardena and captured its captain and sank the surveillance and command ship A 516 at Kankesanthurai. They broke the short lived ceasefire by the bombing of SLNS Sooraya and SLNS Ranasuru using frogmen and later sank the surveillance and command ship SLNS Edithara Kankesanthurai.
In August 1996, the Sea Tigers attacked a cargo vessel MV Princess Wave while it was loading Ilmenite from Pulmoddai, a traditional Tamil homeland. 9 local workers were wounded in the underwater bomb blast. That year, Sea Tigers took part in the Battle of Mullaitivu landing troops along the coast as part of the main attack and then preventing the navy from landing a relief force, sinking the SLNS Ranaviru in the process.
In May 1997, Sea Tigers badly damaged another cargo vessel by placing two to five kilograms of explosives on the hull (starboard or right side), below the water, just near the propeller. The vessel was a cargo vessel named Athena loaded with 42,000 metric tons of Argentinian wheat worth over Rs 570 million (ten million US dollars).
In 2001, the Sri Lankan Navy launched the Operation "Varuna Kirana", to stop LTTE sea tiger convoys from retrieving weapons and equipment from LTTE smuggling ships in the open seas. However, this was ultimately unsuccessful. The SLN units were spread out, and frequently found themselves outnumbered by LTTE convoys, with 10-15 vessels in each caravan pitted against SLN vessels operating in pairs.[citation needed] The sea tigers also benefitted from weak intelligence gathering by the navy and the poor communications between the navy and the air force.
Sea Tigers
The Sea Tigers (Tamil: கடற்புலிகள் Kaţaṛpulikaḷ) was the naval wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the Sri Lankan Civil War. It was founded in 1984. The Sea Tigers had a number of small but effective suicide bomber vessels. During its existence it had gained a reputation as a capable adversary for the Sri Lankan Navy. During the civil war, the Sea Tigers had sunk at least 29 Sri Lankan small inshore patrol boats, 20 Dvora-class fast patrol boats, 3 gunboats, 2 large surveillance command ships, and one freighter.[citation needed]
The Sea Tigers were led by Soosai, with their main base at Mullaitivu, on the north-eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Their last base was taken when the Sri Lanka Army captured Chalai in Mullaitivu in February 2009.
The LTTE was dominated by members with its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran being a Melongi Karaiyar. This caste were traditional fishermen living in the northern and eastern coastal areas of the island, with a strong traditional knowledge on seafaring and the waterways of the Palk Strait. Over the years members of this community had developed strong relations with other communities in the coastal regions of Tamil Nadu, engaging in the lucrative trade of smuggling contraband during the periods of import restrictions during poor economic period following Ceylon's independence from British rule in 1948.
In 1983, the Indian Research and Analysis Wing established training camps Tamil Nadu to train and arm Tamil insurgents in Sri Lanka. The rebels found it easy to travel back to Sri Lanka from training camps and smuggled in their supplies from India via small crafts cross the Palk Strait. With the Sri Lanka Navy intercepting these crafts, Prabhakaran ordered the formation of maritime wing within the LTTE in 1984 tasked with smuggling personnel and equipment between the LTTE's bases in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, in particular Jaffna. A year later these crafts manned by LTTE cadres now known as Sea Tigers had been evading naval patrol crafts began mounting machine guns with which they began engaging the navy in gun battles at sea.
In 1994, Colonel Soosai who had been a deputy district commander was appointed by Prabhakaran as the head of the Sea Tigers. In 1994, the Sea Tigers were able to score notable victories when it sank the offshore patrol vessel of the navy SLNS Sagarawardena and captured its captain and sank the surveillance and command ship A 516 at Kankesanthurai. They broke the short lived ceasefire by the bombing of SLNS Sooraya and SLNS Ranasuru using frogmen and later sank the surveillance and command ship SLNS Edithara Kankesanthurai.
In August 1996, the Sea Tigers attacked a cargo vessel MV Princess Wave while it was loading Ilmenite from Pulmoddai, a traditional Tamil homeland. 9 local workers were wounded in the underwater bomb blast. That year, Sea Tigers took part in the Battle of Mullaitivu landing troops along the coast as part of the main attack and then preventing the navy from landing a relief force, sinking the SLNS Ranaviru in the process.
In May 1997, Sea Tigers badly damaged another cargo vessel by placing two to five kilograms of explosives on the hull (starboard or right side), below the water, just near the propeller. The vessel was a cargo vessel named Athena loaded with 42,000 metric tons of Argentinian wheat worth over Rs 570 million (ten million US dollars).
In 2001, the Sri Lankan Navy launched the Operation "Varuna Kirana", to stop LTTE sea tiger convoys from retrieving weapons and equipment from LTTE smuggling ships in the open seas. However, this was ultimately unsuccessful. The SLN units were spread out, and frequently found themselves outnumbered by LTTE convoys, with 10-15 vessels in each caravan pitted against SLN vessels operating in pairs.[citation needed] The sea tigers also benefitted from weak intelligence gathering by the navy and the poor communications between the navy and the air force.