SRI LANKA ARMY TEAMS WIN GOLD MEDAL IN INTERNATIONAL MILITARY EXERCISE PATS- 2024 – By Ravindra Chandrasiri Wijegunaratne
Sri Lanka Army team who took part in the 7th International Pakistan Army Team Spirit (PATS) Competition – 2024 in Pakistan became one of the best teams winning gold medal for the first time in the history. This is the 6th time participation of the Sri Lanka’s Team in PATS, facilitated by two militaries of the Pakistan and Sri Lanka along with the Sri Lankan High Commission in Islamabad.
PATS Exercise-2024 which was held from 25th to 29th February was concluded at Kharian Garrison with an impressive Closing Ceremony. General Syed Asim Munir, NI (M), Chief of Army Staff (COAS) graced the occasion as the Chief Guest.
Apart from the Sri Lankan Team, seven teams from Pakistan Army and fifteen teams from friendly countries including Bahrain, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Morocco, Qatar, United States of America, Uzbekistan, Thailand and Turkiye participated in the exercise whilst Azerbaijan, China, Germany, Indonesia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Myanmar witnessed the exercise as observers.
PATS is a special narrative-based competition similar to “Exercise Cambrian Patrol’ conducted in the UK and designed to test tactical skills in physical and professional domains as well as agility of the participating teams to generate responses in challenging real-time field scenarios. During the 62 hour long event a patrol from every participating team will be tasked to infiltrate in terrorist infested area, carry out a task and exfiltrate. Teams are subjected to various cross-domain scenarios and focused tasks including physical endurance, water obstacle crossing, close target reconnaissance and protective approach under chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear environment.
