BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has announced plans by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), to establish a Forward Operational Base (FOB) in Taraba State, as part of efforts to further tackle the incessant herdsmen-farmers clashes in the country.
Air Marshal Abubakar announced this while delivering a lecture to participants of the National Defence College (NDC), Course 26 in Abuja, adding that plans are also in top gear to establish a Quick Response Wing along the Benue-Nasarawa Axis.
The lecture titled, ‘The Nigerian Air Force – Challenges and Future Perspectives,’ afforded the CAS to share thoughts with the participants on how the National Defence Policy prescribes that the NAF should be employed, out of which the mission statement of the NAF was coined.
Air Marshal Abubakar also spoke on the current and likely threats as well as contingencies from the perspective of air operations. He then elucidated on his vision for the NAF while also highlighting current efforts at actualizing it.
Some of the initiatives included but are not limited to the establishment of new commands and some units, improvement in human capacity development, improved aircraft serviceability and logistics support as well as enhanced personnel welfare. He also spoke about the efforts being made in the area of research and development towards improved self-sufficiency, as a result of which the NAF is currently making great savings in foreign exchange.
Thereafter, he discussed the current NAF Force structure, doctrine, current capabilities and equipment holding in response to threats alongside the NAF’s strategic plan before looking at NAF future perspectives.
The CAS equally examined the challenges and constraints to the NAF’s air power effectiveness before concluding the lecture by discussing the strategies to countering the challenges enumerated. The lecture was followed by a stimulating interactive session.
In his remarks, Commandant of NDC, Rear Admiral Adeniyi Osinowo said no nation can win any war today without an effective and virile Air Force, adding that there was no doubt that the current NAF leadership is taking a lot of laudable and unprecedented steps, especially in the area of technological development, in a bid to reposition the NAF for greatness.
He particularly cited the recent feats by the NAF in locally designing and producing an operational Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, among many other breakthroughs in the area of research and development.
He then seized the opportunity to congratulate the CAS on the recent passage of the bill establishing the Air Force Institute of Technology Kaduna, which he believed would further enhance technological growth in the NAF.
Participants of the Course are drawn from senior officers of the Armed Forces of Nigeria and those of sister African countries, senior officials of other security agencies in Nigeria as well as those of Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
