The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Monday, 21 October 2019, commenced its Third Quarter Chief of the Air Staff CAS Conference at the Headquarters NAF (HQ NAF) Abuja.
According to the statement released by Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, stated that during the CAS Conference, the CAS, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, highlighted several achievements recorded by the Service over the last 3 months, which had enhanced its ability to better serve Nigerians.
Some of the achievements, he noted, include the sustained air onslaught against terrorists, insurgents and other criminal elements; winging of 13 additional young pilots, including the first NAF female fighter and helicopter pilots; sustenance of high serviceability rate of flyable NAF aircraft; reactivation of NAF C-130H aircraft (NAF 917) and EC-135 helicopter as well as fabrication of hydraulic diaphragm for the L-39ZA aircraft amongst other NAF Research and Development (R & D) breakthroughs.
The CAS reiterated that the objective of holding such CAS Conferences was to critically evaluate the performance of the Service in the past quarter to identify areas where successes had been recorded whilst also noting areas that require improvement.
On acquisition of aircraft, he revealed that the NAF would take delivery of 2 additional attack helicopters from Italy before the end of the year, while also noting that the Super Tucano contract with the United States Government was progressing as expected, with necessary infrastructure for the security and maintenance of the aircraft steadily being emplaced at the designated NAF Base.
Air Marshal Abubakar added that the process for the acquisition of the NAF JF-17 Thunder multi-role fighter aircraft from Pakistan was also progressing steadily, as assured by the Pakistan Air Force CAS, who had visited Nigeria the week before.
On reactivation of aircraft, the CAS noted that the NAF had commenced the in-country maintenance of a Mi-35P helicopter gunship at its Base in Port Harcourt, while the Periodic Depot Maintenance (PDM) of another C-130H aircraft (NAF 913) was also progressing on schedule for completion in February 2020.