[7] A ceremony was held at the navy base SLNS Gemunu at Welisara to mark this event, presided over by the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

[6][8][9] In 2006, the navy located a Sea Tigers boat manufacturing yard in Trincomale, during a SBS operation, led by LCDR Mudiyanselage Bandula Dissanayake and was used to base SLN’s first 16-foot Arrow Boat and went in to service that year.

With the guidance and encouragement of then-SLN Commander VADM Wasantha Karannagoda, Navy engineers continued to experiment with different configurations of this base model.

[6][11] No armour is provided, with the intention of keeping the boat light enough to meet the primary requirements of speed and maneuverability.

The experiments yielded two more versions of the Arrow Boat, the 18-footer and the highly successful 23-foot model, which went into mass production.