Asymmetric Warfare at Sea

The global terrorism is on the rise in the contemporary world. The ungoverned, unregulated global common of the ocean has been exploited by various terrorist organizations in the past and they may do so in the future too. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)incorporated maritime domain into their grand strategy and exploited it effectively to develop their fighting capability to a near conventional level. The Sea Tigers were the pioneers of suicide terrorism at sea, swarming tactics, underwater explosive ordinance and effectively fought with the Sri Lanka Navy for nearly 26 long years. Finally, the navy undertook radical changes in its approach and used asymmetric tactics at sea to attack the center of gravity of the LTTE; their international logistic network and ability to fight at sea, successfully and regained the command of the sea. Naval action destroyed the LTTE's ability to wage and sustain war on land and contributed to the grand victory by the armed forces. This is a unique real-life case in the contemporary naval history. There can be many lessons to be learnt from this experience for maritime strategists, policy makers, practitioners, academics and naval officers.