Nigerian Air Force

Nigerian Air Force Nigerian Air Force (NAF)
Nigerian Air Force logo
Lineup	April 18, 1964
Country	Nigeria
Armed forces	Nigerian Armed Forces
Type	Armed forces ( air force )
Strength	9,500
management
Chief of Staff of the Air Force	Air Marshal Adesola Nunayon Amosu
insignia
Aircraft cockade
National emblem ( vertical stabilizer )
flag

The Nigerian Air Force ( English Nigerian Air Force , abbreviated NAF ) is the air force of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria .

history

The Luftwaffe, which was formally founded in January 1964 with technical support from Germany, began its existence as a transport unit with pilots who had been trained in Germany , Canada , Ethiopia and India . The first in command from 1963 to 1965 was the German Colonel Gerhard Kahtz.

Two FT-7s in the air

It had no combat strength until 1966, when the Soviet Union delivered MiG-17 fighter planes. In the early 1980s, a further expansion was decided, but this was delayed by a military coup under Muhammadu Buhari in December 1983. After that, aircraft were purchased from both eastern and western production. At the end of the 1980s, Soviet MiG-21s of the versions “MF” and “bis” as well as British-French SEPECAT Jaguars formed the spearhead . In addition to two two-seat MiG-21U, Italian MB-339A , Czechoslovakian L-39 and Alpha Jets, which were delivered from 1981/82, were used for training purposes . The number of rotary wing aircraft was 24 Bo 105C and a few Super Puma . At the beginning of the 1990s, the Nigerian Air Force was one of the largest and most modern in the African region, but the operational readiness and number of aircraft steadily decreased in the following years. In 2007 the Air Force had a strength of 10,000 men. She flies transport planes, training planes, helicopters, attack helicopters and fighter planes that the International Institute for Strategic Studies notes are "of very limited operational capability". A repair workshop in the country had been agreed with Belarus for 2012 .

The Air Force sponsors the Air Force Military School in Jos .

Nigeria has embarked on a policy of building military training and military production capacities in the country. Nigeria employs a strict policy strategy of diversifying military procurement from different countries. At the end of 2014, after a visit by the Nigerian Air Marshal Adesola Nunayon, the Pakistani Ministry of Defense announced that Nigeria would buy 3 Chengdu FC-1 fighter jets from Pakistan . In addition, a contract was signed with Brazil for the delivery of 3 Embraer EMB 314 ground attack aircraft, which will be stationed in Kainji, and Pakistan acquired 4 Mi-35M attack helicopters.

Current equipment

Planes

Status: end of 2016

Aircraft	origin	use	version	active	Ordered	Remarks
Chengdu FC-1	Pakistan	Fighter plane	FC-1		3
Embraer EMB 314	Brazil	Ground attack aircraft			3
Chengdu J-7	People's Republic of China	Fighter aircraft trainer aircraft	F-7 FT-7	10 2
ATR 42	Italy	Maritime patrol	ATR 42 MP Surveyor	2
Lockheed C-130 Hercules	United States	Transport plane	C-130H	2
Dornier Do 128	Germany	Transport plane		11
Dornier Do 228	Germany	Transport plane		6th
Aeritalia G.222	Italy	Transport plane		2
Alpha Jet	Germany	Trainer aircraft	Alpha Jet E	8th
Aero L-39 Albatross	Czechoslovakia	Trainer aircraft		15th

helicopter

Status: end of 2013

Aircraft	origin	use	version	active	Ordered	Remarks
Mil Wed-24	Soviet Union	Attack helicopter	Wed-24 Wed-35	8th	4th
Mil Wed-8 / Wed-17	Soviet Union	Transport helicopter		4th
Aérospatiale AS 332	France	Transport helicopter		5, originally 15
AgustaWestland AW139	Italy	Medium multipurpose helicopter		1
Agusta A109	Italy	Training helicopter	A109 LUH	13

Agusta A109

Incidents

• On September 26, 1992, a Lockheed C-130H Hercules of the Nigerian Air Force ( aircraft registration number NAF911 ) crashed into a swamp with mangrove trees shortly after takeoff. Engine 2 failed immediately after take-off, followed shortly afterwards by a second. The pilots wanted to ditch a canal, but a third engine failure occurred. The plane crashed vertically 7 kilometers west of the takeoff airport in Lagos ( Nigeria ). The machine was on its way to Kaduna (Nigeria) and Jos . All 159 occupants, 8 crew members and 151 passengers were killed; this is the official information. However, it is likely that there were more people on board as no cargo documents were issued. Further reports indicate 163 inmates, another 174 and even 200 people, since among the dead were unidentified children as well as military personnel who were practically “hitchhiking”. In any case, this was the most serious Lockheed Hercules accident in terms of the number of fatalities.

Web links

Commons : Nigerian Air Force  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Official website of the Nigerian Air Force (Engl.)
• The Nigerian Air Force at GlobalSecurity.org (Engl.)
• Nigerian Armed Forces at GlobalDefence.net . Archived from the original on April 19, 2014 ; accessed on March 23, 2020 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ List of Chiefs of the Nigerian Air Force at Naijarchives , accessed April 21, 2014
2. ↑ Lindsay Peacock: The air forces of the world. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-8289-5334-4 , p. 150
3. ↑ ^{a b} Belarus to open embassy, ​​helicopter maintenance facility in Nigeria , defenceweb.co.za, October 14, 2011
4. ↑ http://www.janes.com/article/46579/ideas-2014-nigeria-close-to-signing-up-for-jf-17 ( Memento from December 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Future Nigerian Super Tucano base identified April 23, 2019
6. ↑ Nigeria turns to Pakistan, Russia for arms November 18, 2016
7. ↑ ^{a b} Flightglobal Insight: World Air Forces 2014 ( Memento from December 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
8. ^ Accident report C-130H Hercules NAF911 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 9, 2020.
9. ↑ Peter C. Smith: The Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules - A Complete History , Manchester 2010, ISBN 9 780859 791533, p. 396.
10. ↑ Lars Olausson: Lockheed Hercules 1954-2005 , Såtenäs 2004, p. 88.