Crishantha de Silva

Crishantha de Silva
De Silva (right) on board the USS New Orleans
Allegiance	Sri Lanka
Service/branch	Sri Lanka Army
Years of service	1981 - 2017
Rank	General
Unit	Sri Lanka Engineers
Commands held	Chief of the Defence Staff, Commander of the Army, Chief of Staff, Sri Lanka Army
Battles/wars	Sri Lankan Civil War, Insurrection 1987-89
Awards	Rana Wickrama Padakkama, Uttama Seva Padakkama

General Akurathiya Withanage Jagath Crishanthe de Silva, RWP, USP, ndu, psc is a Sri Lankan general and a military engineer. He has held command of both the Sri Lanka Army as well as the position of Chief of Defence Staff.

Educated at the Royal College, Colombo, he received his basic training at the Sri Lanka Military Academy and is a graduate of Staff College, Camberley and the Nanjing PLA Army Command College. He also holds a Master's degree in Defence Studies from the National Defence University of Indonesia. He has attended the Bomb Disposal Course at the College of Military Engineering, Pune, Engineer Company Commanders' Course at the Military College of Engineering, Pakistan, the Higher Command Course at the Army War College, Mhow, and the Advanced Security Cooperation Executive Course at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

De Silva joined the Sri Lanka Army as a Officer Cadet in February 1980 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 1st Field Engineer Regiment, Sri Lanka Engineers in 1981. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1985, Major 1989), Lieutenant Colonel (1994), Colonel (1997), Brigadier (2003) and Major General in November 2009.