BEVERLY HILLS, August 21, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government is making arrangement to respond to the attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region through the importation of sophisticated military hardware.
THEWILL gathered that the Federal Government has ordered for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles including the Yahbon/20UAVs from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates to replace the Chinese CH-3A UAV in the arsenal of the military.
The new UAVs are billed to arrive the country in November, 2016 as the military hopes to rely heavily on the hardware which carries four missiles on its wings for the success of the planned operation in the oil rich region.
Furthermore, the government is also purchasing MI35M helicopters, which is the latest and more sophisticated version of the MI35, from Russia to further equip the Nigerian Air Force.
The Russians also trained 33 personnel of the Nigerian Air Force on how to fly and handle the ‘all-weather helicopters’ which could operate night and day.
The upgrade was confirmed by Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Saddique Abubakar, in a programme on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), monitored by THEWILL where he declared that there was an urgent need to boost the capacity of the air force to meet its responsibilities.
He revealed that the air force is involved in the battle to rid the country of terrorism in the North East and other serious security issues confronting the country, such as Niger Delta militancy and community attacks.
“Aside the gunships from Russia, a new set of fighter jets from the United States of America with ISR facilities would soon be delivered to NAF as soon as the US Congress, which gives approval on manufacture and sale of such hi-tech weaponry, gave its nod,” he revealed.
“We have degraded the capacity of the Boko Haram terrorist’s group to move around inside the Sambisa forest.
“The only problem we are having is that of the terrain. It is a big challenge because the place has been mined and troops cannot just move freely.
“However, the terrorists have been fleeing the forest because of air force bombardment.”
Story by David Oputah
