Commander of the Army (Sri Lanka)

Commander of the Sri Lanka Army
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ යුද්ධ හමුදාපති
Incumbent Lieutenant General Vikum Liyanage since 1 June 2022
Sri Lanka Army
Member of	National Security Council
Reports to	Chief of Defence Staff
Residence	General's House, Colombo
Seat	Army Headquarters
Appointer	The President
Term length	Not fixed
Precursor	Commander of the Ceylon Defence Force
Formation	20 October 1949; 75 years ago (1949-10-20) as Commander of the Ceylon Army
First holder	Brigadier Roderick Sinclair (as Commander, Ceylon Army)
Deputy	Chief of Staff of the Army
Website	Official website

The Commander of the Army (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ යුද්ධ හමුදාපති, romanized: śrī laṁkāvē yuddha hamudāpati) is the title of the professional head of the Sri Lanka Army. The current Commander of the Army is Lt. General Vikum Liyanage.^[1]

The post's precursor was known as Commander of the Ceylon Defence Force.

Serving army commanders have by convention been of the rank of Lieutenant General, promoted to the rank of General on the day of his retirement or after getting the appointment of Chief of Defence Staff. Sepala Attygalle was the first army commander who was promoted to full general on the day of his retirement in 1977. Tissa Weeratunga was the second commander to be promoted to the rank of full general on the day of his retirement in 1985 (after serving as the general officer commanding of the joint operations command).

Sarath Fonseka, Jagath Jayasuriya and Shavendra Silva who were elevated to the rank of General while serving as Commander. Denis Perera and Nalin Seneviratne were promoted to full general in 2007 after 26 years and 19 years of retirement respectively.^[2]

The official residence of the commander is General's House, Colombo.