Awards and decorations of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces

The Sri Lankan Armed Forces award medals and their associated ribbon bars in recognition of various levels of service, personal accomplishments and commemorative events while a regular- or volunteer serviceperson is a member of the Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and the Sri Lanka Air Force.

Together with military badges, such awards are a means to outwardly display the highlights of a serviceperson's career.

The United Nations Medal for participation in UN peacekeeping operations: From its formation in 1949, the Ceylon Armed Forces continued the use of British military decorations.

This was discontinued in 1956 with a suspension of nominations for British honours; until Sri Lanka's republican constitution of 1972, the following awards were used: Imperial and local medals awarded for military service to the colony and empire.

The order in which decorations and medals are to be worn have been defined in the Dress Regulation of the Sri Lanka Army.

Medals of the Sri Lankan military displayed on a Sri Lanka Army service uniform
An Air Force serviceman in parade uniform, with medals pinned on left breast
All of Sri Lanka's campaign medals (as at December 2020) center around those that were part of the Sri Lankan Civil War . As such, the campaigns took place in the North and East of the island, shown here
A Sri Lankan UN peacekeeper in Carrefour , Haiti in 2010
Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, possessed a small standing armed force of its own. Here, Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake watches the Ceylon Light Infantry training at the Echelon Barracks in the 1950s
SLA officer displaying ribbon bars in order of precedence.
SLN officer displaying ribbon bars in order of precedence.
SLAF officer displaying ribbon bars in order of precedence.