Crishantha de Silva

Lieutenant General A.W.J. Crishanthe De Silva, RWP, USP, ndc, psc, SLE is a Sri Lankan general and the current Commander of the Sri Lankan Army.

Educated at the Royal College, Colombo he is a graduate of Staff College, Camberley, Nanjing Army Command College and he gained a master's degree in Defence Studies from the National Resilience Institute. He has attended the Bomb Disposal Course at the College of Military Engineering, Pune; Engineer Company Commanders' Course at the Military College of Engineering; Higher Command Course at the Army War College, Mhow; and the Advanced Security Cooperation Executive Course at the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies, Hawai.

Crishanthe De Silva joined the Sri Lanka Army as a cadet officer in 1980 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 1 Field Engineer Regiment, Sri Lanka Engineers in 1981.

He went on to command the 6th Field Engineer Regiment, Engineer Brigade and the 562 Infantry Brigade. He had served as the Commandant of the Defence Services Command and Staff College and the Sri Lanka Military Academy. His commands include Security Forces Headquarters – Kilinochchi and at the Sri Lanka Army General Staff, he had served as Military Secretary and Director Operations. He served as Commander, Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force (SLAVF) before taking up appointment in 2013 as Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army. In 2014, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Moscow. In February 2015, he was appointed Commander of the Army.