The Anti-arms smuggling operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Navy between September 2006 and October 2007 involved six successful interceptions in the Indian Ocean of rogue merchant ships transporting arms and ammunition to the LTTE.
Intelligence from these operations revealed that the weapons were being sourced from cargo vessels in Indonesian waters, approximately 3,000 kilometres from Sri Lanka.
To address this, the navy targeted these vessels, which served as floating armouries, rather than just intercepting the trawlers carrying smaller quantities of military hardware.
Initial attempts were unsuccessful, but detailed analysis led to a breakthrough on 28 February 2007 when the first LTTE floating armoury was detected approximately 360 km south of Sri Lanka and subsequently destroyed.
The navy claims to have destroyed close to 10 million kg of military hardware, including: These losses dealt a significant setback to the LTTE in the ground war.