The Commander of the Army is the title of the professional head of the Sri Lanka Army. The current Commander of the Army is Lt. General Vikum Liyanage. The post's precursor was known as Commander of the Ceylon Defence Force. Serving army commanders have by convention been of the rank of Lieutenant General, promoted to the rank of General on the day of his retirement or after getting the appointment of Chief of Defence Staff. Sepala Attygalle was the first army commander who was promoted to full general on the day of his retirement in 1977. Tissa Weeratunga was the second commander to be promoted to the rank of full general on the day of his retirement in 1985 (after serving as the general officer commanding of the joint operations command). Sarath Fonseka, Jagath Jayasuriya and Shavendra Silva who were elevated to the rank of General while serving as Commander. Denis Perera and Nalin Seneviratne were promoted to full general in 2007 after 26 years and 19 years of retirement respectively. The official residence of the commander is General's House, Colombo.

List of officeholders

From Hamilton Wanasinghe (appointed in 1988) customarily all army commanders are lieutenant generals and were later promoted to full general on the day of his retirement or after becoming the g.o.c. of the joint operations command which is currently known as chief of defence staff.