Boosting their Wings to Fly

Chiemelie Ezeobi reports that in the past six years, the Nigerian Air Force has received major boost, especially in acquisition of essential platforms and reactivation of grounded aircraft, thus giving them wings to fly in battling insurgency, banditry and other forms of insecurity

Over the years, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has grown into a formidable force within the West African sub-region. Even more so, under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the aerial force has really evolved in enhancing its airpower capabilities in response to contemporary national security challenges.

Since time immemorial, air power has been a critical factor in determining the outcome of any war. Thus, the capability of every air force globally is measured by the number of serviceable aircraft in its inventory and the professional competence of its airmen, a creed the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshal Oladayo Amao is bent on adhering to.

In its 57 years as a professional fighting force, the NAF has had its fair share of neglect and setback, just like any other sector of the economy, but from all indications, the NAF has a lot to celebrate especially with the progress it has recorded under this administration.

New Acquisitions

Under the watch of President Buhari, THISDAY checks revealed that the federal government has acquired 26 brand new aircraft to boost the combat readiness of the NAF in the last six years. The newly acquired aircraft include 10 Super Mushshak trainer aircraft, five new Mi-35M helicopter gunships and two Bell 412 helicopters. Others include four Agusta 109 Power attack helicopters, two Mi-171E helicopters and more recently, three JF-17 Thunder multi-role fighter aircraft.

Recently, the NAF inducted six A-29 Super Tucano aircraft out of the 12 already purchased by this administration. For the remaining, it is expected that it would soon arrive before the end of the year, along with some Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles, all geared towards boosting NAF’s air power capabilities in support of joint operations.

Reactivation of Grounded Aircraft

In the same vein, with the support of President Buhari, 20 previously grounded aircraft including the Falcon 900, ATR-42, Beechcraft, Super Puma, F-7Ni, EC-135, Do-228, Mi-24V, Mi-35P, C-130H, L-39ZA and Alpha Jet aircraft were reactivated.

Additionally, for the first time in its history, it was gathered that the NAF successfully conducted multiple in-country Periodic Depot Maintenance (PDM) on two C-130H, three L-39ZA aircraft, two Mi-35P helicopters, as well as three Alpha Jet aircraft.

Essentially, these acquisitions and reactivation, as well as the emplacement of robust logistics support structure have enabled the NAF to raise the serviceability status of operable aircraft from about 35 per cent in 2015 to about 72 per cent as of August 2, 2021.

Airlift Capabilities

At present, NAF has an aggressive airlift capacity that provides speedy airlift support for sister services, the federal government and its agencies both within and outside the country.

The NAF also has a search and rescue airlift capability made up of helicopters that are capable of performing large-scale rescue operations over jungles, mountains and high seas. Another area where the NAF’s exploits readily come to mind is disaster management.

Training and Retraining

To ensure the sustainability of the newly acquired platforms, the federal government has in the last six years invested substantially in the training and retraining of NAF personnel both locally and abroad.

Within the period under review, the NAF has winged over 133 pilots while 233 other personnel of various trades are currently undergoing training.

Similarly, the enhancement of training facilities at the 401 Flying Training School (401 FTS) Kaduna has improved the training capacity of the school.

As a result, for the first time in about three decades, 401 FTS was able to complete ab-initio flying training for cadets of the Nigerian Defence Academy before their commissioning as officers.

In the aspect of aircraft serviceability, the NAF has trained and retrained engineers and technicians to ensure adequate maintenance of its fleet.

Fight against Insurgency

These efforts at enhancing NAF’s fleet as well as building capacity of personnel has no doubt reflected on NAF’s operational output.

Coupled with the renewed and enhanced synergy among the services and other security agencies, the acquisition and employment of these platforms has yielded tangible results in the fight against insurgency in the North-east, while recording gains in the fight against armed bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements in the North-west and North-central theatres.

For instance, from January 2021 till date the Air Component elements of Operation HADIN KAI (OPHK) conducted 1,015 missions in 1,357 sorties and logging 1,861hrs.

The most recent achievements recorded in the OPHK Theatre included provision of Close Air Support (CAS) to ground troops in combat with ISWAP forces equipped with 12 GTs and two Armoured Personnel Carriers at Damboa, Borno State on 3 June 21.

Here, NAF aircraft prevented troop’s location from being overrun and inflicted heavy casualties on the ISWAP forces leading to their eventual withdraw.

Air interdiction and CAS missions were also conducted at Lamboa on June 20, 2021 against ISWAP elements with all five of their gun trucks destroyed and several terrorists neutralised.

Similarly, on June 27, 2021, CAS was provided for ground troops in combat with ISWAP forces at Bula Yobe on June 27, 2021. The air operations destroyed three-gun trucks, neutralised many terrorists, and prevented our troop’s location from being overrun.

The successes recorded by NAF’s air component also extended to Operation HADARIN DAJI (OPHD) in the Northwest as well.

Indeed, from January 2021 to date, the air component of OPHD conducted 591 missions in 692 sorties with 943 hours flown. These operations led to the rescue of some kidnapped students whilst providing CAS for troops on clearance operations in various locations resulting in the destruction of bandit camps.

Within the same period, the air component of Operation THUNDER STRIKE (OPTS) conducted 500 missions in 630 sorties with 975 hours flown with tangible results in the areas of curtailed cattle rustling, kidnapping and banditry.

The NAF also made significant contributions to the results achieved in Operations WHIRL STROKE in the North-central; DELTA SAFE in the South-south and AWATSE in the South-west.

These efforts and successes recorded no doubt were realisable due to the improvement and enhancement in NAF’s air fleet inventory that comprises aircraft of various capabilities required for different types of operations.

The NAF recently conducted a holistic assessment of its combat efficiency in order to determine requirements, in terms of air platforms, armament, communication, manpower and medical, amongst others, to raise the efficiency of the service to appropriate levels to meet current and emerging national security imperatives.

Non-kinetic Operations

While the NAF sustains its kinetic operations, it has also continued to devote resources to non-kinetic operations aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the civil populace.

These were achieved through the provision of medical facilities and school feeding programmes in IDP Camps in Borno State, conduct of medical outreaches to host communities of NAF units across the country, provision of airlift in support of the national COVID-19 response and availing host communities of NAF schools and medical facilities.

The NAF have also dedicated significant time and resources to capacity building of personnel of other support trades, whilst placing high premium on the welfare of personnel and their families to ensure enhanced performance in the field.

Welfare

The welfare of personnel has also received close attention as the NAF have renovated/remodeled and constructed new blocks of classrooms and hostel accommodation in existing NAF schools across the country.

In the same vein, the NAF has vigorously engaged in massive construction and renovation of residential accommodation to reduce the accommodation challenges in our bases.

It has also sustained its efforts at expanding the post-service housing schemes to ease the burden of post-service life settlement for our personnel. All these were done as part of efforts to bolster morale by improving personnel welfare for effective and efficient service delivery.

Healthcare

Healthwise, the NAF unveiled the telemedicine portal to ease personnel’s access to quality healthcare that transcends borders. Also, NAF College of Nursing was upgraded and accredited to offer HND programmes.

Research and Development

One key factor for any thriving military is Research and Development (R&D). For the

NAF, this is also critical and under this administration, they have also continued to invest heavily in Research and Development especially in Unmanned Aerial Systems technology, rockets and rocket launchers, heat shield protective cones for the Alpha Jet rocket pods, among others.

From capacity building to platform acquisition, research and development, welfare of personnel, infrastructural development, robust and result-orientated training for enhanced professional performance, the NAF has indeed been given wings to fly.