Crishantha de Silva

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.

Education
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.

Military career
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.

He went on to command the 6th Field Engineer Regiment and had served as the Brigade Commander of the Engineer Brigade, the 51-2 Infantry Brigade and the 56-2 Infantry Brigade. He had served as the Commandant of the Sri Lanka School of Military Engineering, the Defence Services Command and Staff College and the Sri Lanka Military Academy. His commands include Commander Forward Maintenance Area, Wanni; Security Forces Headquarters – Kilinochchi and in the Sri Lanka Army General Staff, he had served as Additional Military Secretary, Director Plans, Military Secretary and Director Operations. He had served as Colonel Commandant of the Corps of Sri Lanka Engineers and was a member of military delegations to Malaysia and China. 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 and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General. In June 2017 he was promoted to the rank of General and appointed as Chief of Defence Staff.

He has been awarded the Rana Wickrama Padakkama (RWP), Uttama Seva Padakkama (USP), the Sri Lanka Armed Services Long Service Medal, the Purna Bhumi Padakkama and the North and East Operations Medal.