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History of The Nigerian Air Force |
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Notable Achievement of the Nigerian Air Force |
Certain achievements of the NAF since establishment deserve specific mention.
Significant among these are the NAF’s exploits in the Nigerian Civil War,
liberation wars in Southern Africa and ECOMOG Operations.
The Nigerian Civil
War. The earliest achievement of the NAF is the successful delivery of effective
airpower in the Nigerian Civil War. The NAF entered the war in a state of
doctrinal and physical un-preparedness. It possessed very limited air strength
and lacked contingency plans for joint military operations. This resulted in the
initial difficulty experienced. The initial struggle for the command of the air
was fought over a variety of threats, unfavourable weather conditions and most
importantly changing military strategies. There is no doubt that with a more
domineering airpower and skilled manpower, the war could have ended much
earlier. It would have denied the Biafrans the effective use of their assets
while at the same time preventing them the use of airstrips within the enclave
for arms importation. It would also have ensured that the ground forces received
appropriate air cover at all times, thereby minimising the number of casualties.
Notwithstanding, NAF played a pivotal role in ensuring that Nigeria remained a
united entity.
Liberation War in Southern Africa. Again during the various
liberation wars in Southern Africa, the Nigerian Air Force was actively involved
in sustaining the struggle. The NAF flew several high risk C-130 missions to the
front-line states of Zambia and Tanzania carrying military hardware, ammunitions
and other logistic requirements to the liberation movements. These efforts
contributed in no small measure to the eventual liberation of Zimbabwe,
Mozambique and South Africa.
Peace Support Operations. In the areas of peace
support operations, the Nigerian Air Force has also left an indelible imprint.
The Nigerian troops deployed to Lebanon on UN peace keeping operations from 1978
– 1982 relied entirely on NAF airlift assets for their sustenance. Also, the
deployment, and withdrawal of the Nigerian contingent to OAU peacekeeping
operations in Chad in 1982/83 were carried out by NAF C-130s. Aside from these
major operations the NAF was involved in one way or the other, in peacekeeping
efforts in Yugoslavia, Somalia, Rwanda, Kuwait etc. Lastly the successes
recorded by ECOMOG forces in their peace keeping, and later peace enforcement
efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone would have been at a far higher cost and
perhaps impossible, without the critical contributions of NAF air power. At
present, NAF C-130s are involved in airlift missions in Darfur in aid of UNAMID.
Mission in Aid to Civil Authority. In addition to the aforementioned
missions, the NAF has been called upon to undertake missions in aid to the civil
authority. These missions range from internal security assignments such as
assisting the Nigerian Army in quelling riots to the provision of airlift to the
Central Bank of Nigeria and other government service agencies. Indeed, most of
the electoral materials used in the series of elections in the country were
airlifted by the NAF. At the moment, the Service is involved in Internal
Security operations in some parts of the country.
Training. The greatest
strides of the NAF have been made in the areas of training and maintenance. The
NAF today has established various schools in different specialties giving it a
capacity to meet about 95% of its training requirements locally for
non-technical trades and 60% for technical and pilot training. Besides, the
Service has trained many pilots and aircraft technicians for many sister African
countries like Ghana, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Republic of Benin and Niger. Of
course, it has also trained some aircraft technicians for the Nigerian Army and
a few pilots for the Nigerian Navy.
Establishment of Air Force Institute of
Technology. In pursuit of its goal of raising the level of NAF’s technical
manpower, the NAF established the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in
2008. The affiliation of the Institute with Cranfield University United Kingdom
is a significant drive in making the institution world class There are ongoing
measures to broaden the affiliation of AFIT with relevant aeronautical bodies
that would further enhance its status as a premier class technology institute.
This is a giant step in evolving a human resource base for self reliance in
fleet maintenance for the NAF and other stake holders in the aviation industry. |
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