Changing NAF’s Capacity, Service Delivery Narrative

Changing NAF’s Capacity, Service Delivery Narrative

Chiemelie Ezeobi writes that as the Nigerian Air Force clocks 55 as a professional fighting force, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar’s key derivatives is continually geared towards changing the force’s capacity and delivery narrative

Air power in history has been a decisive and critical factor in determining the outcome of any war. It is a fundamental component of military element of national power. The capability of every air force globally is measured by the number of serviceable aircraft in its inventory and the professional competence of its airmen.

For an efficient, effective and functional air force, capacity development is critical and fundamental.

In its 55 years as a professional fighting force, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) unequivocally has had its fair share of neglect and setback, just like any other sector of the economy.

The level of training in the NAF was at its lowest ebb prior to the coming on board of the current NAF administration and this led to serious decline in the fortunes of the NAF. As such, most of its aircraft were grounded due to lack of spares while it was even more difficult to secure training slots overseas.

Different reasons could be adduced for this. One was political, stemming from the prolonged military rule. Secondly, sanctions were imposed on the country at the time which made it extremely difficult to procure equipment or train personnel and this adversely affected both local and overseas training.

Spirited efforts by successive NAF administrations to restore the fortunes and the glorious past of the service did not yield much result. However, in July 2015 luck smiled on the service once again, as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari appointed Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar as the 20th Chief of the Air Staff (CAS).

Mindful of the key role of training in building the professional competence of his men, the CAS, wasted no time in carving out a vision to support his quest, “to reposition the NAF into a highly professional and disciplined force through capacity building initiatives for effective, efficient and timely employment of air power in response to Nigeria’s national security imperatives”.

Key Drivers

The vision was anchored on six key drivers prominent among which was, “human capacity development through robust and result oriented training for enhanced professional performance”.

With the support of the Federal Government in providing required resources, Abubakar immediately embarked on recruitment as well as training and retraining of personnel to meet the emerging security challenges confronting the nation.

Recruitment

In the last four years of being at the helms of affairs, the Abubakar-led administration has recruited 7,693 airmen/airwomen while 669 officers have been commissioned. Currently, about 206 Direct Short Service Commission (DSSC) officer cadets are undergoing training at the Military Training Centre (MTC), Kaduna.

Before now, the number of recruits into the NAF was just 500 per training cycle. However, with the expansion of the training facilities at the MTC, the number of recruits increased to 2,500.

Enhanced Professionalism

Aside increasing the manpower due to the new force structure to maintain the integrity of the air space, emphasis is also geared towards enhanced professionalism of personnel. In the last four years, the NAF has trained officers, airmen and airwomen in different categories of air and ground functions.

The service has winged 92 pilots while several other pilots are undergoing various flying training courses. On the whole, about1,500 re-currency and advanced flying training courses have been conducted for NAF pilots, both locally and abroad, in the last four years.

One of the striking aspects of the NAF manpower development by Abubakar’s-led administration is the training of young pilots of the ranks of flight lieutenants and below including females, who are not just captains on their respective aircraft types but also instructor pilots, risking their lives and flying day and night missions to ensure the security of Nigeria and Nigerians. The training of these young pilots would undoubtedly add more impetus to the fight against insurgency and other internal security operations in the country.

Training for Engineers

The serviceability of an aircraft is dependent on the effectiveness of the engineers and technicians. To this end, the current leadership has also taken major steps in the area of training and retraining of engineers and technicians both at home and overseas as over 2,255 engineering officers and technicians have received different levels of training since 2015.

The training has not been limited to pilots, engineers and technicians but equally extended to other operational and administrative personnel. More than 15,114 different training courses have been conducted within the same period. The story is the same across all trades and specialties in the NAF for both commissioned and non-commissioned officers. The NAF now has a much more competent professional force to undertake missions for effective and efficient service delivery.

Regiment Specialty

The Regiment Specialty is not left out in the human capacity development effort of the NAF. As part of its efforts to effectively tackle the internal security challenges in the country in fulfillment of its statutory roles, the NAF, in the last four years, has restructured the Regiment Specialty.

The Regiment Specialty, tasked with the responsibility of protecting NAF bases and own assets as well as national assets like airports, was relatively ill-equipped with inadequate manpower due to years of neglect.

Today, the Regiment Specialty, under the leadership of Abubakar, has not only been reorganised, but adequately equipped and its personnel retrained both at home and abroad to effectively defend NAF Bases and other critical national assets against attacks as well as emerging security threats in the country.

In 2015, the current NAF administration took a bold step to initiate two separate training programmes for the development of the capacity of personnel of the Regiment Specialty. The first, in collaboration with the Israeli Four Troops Team, was for the development of Special Forces (SF) capabilities for the NAF while the second, in collaboration with the British Military Advisory Training Team (BMATT), was for training in Force Protection in Complex Air Ground Environment (FPCAGE).

Aside from the local training, some of the elements of the NAF SF have also been trained in Belarus and Pakistan. The SF was established to deal with the dynamism of contemporary security challenges whilst ensuring base defence and protection of NAF air assets and critical installations.

So far, the Regiment Specialty has witnessed astronomical increase in its strength from about 1,300 in 2015 to over 4,000 while over 1,000 SF personnel have been trained both locally and abroad. Out of the 1,000 SF personnel, 300 have been deployed for internal security operations in Zamfara State and another 300 deployed to Benue State under the Defence Headquarters ‘Operation WHIRL STROKE. In the same vein, 3,600 personnel drawn from the Regiment, Intelligence and Air Police specialties have been trained in FPCAGE from 2015 to date.

The regular and advanced training of aircrew and other operational and administrative personnel has reinforced the combat capability of the NAF; which accounts for the significant successes so far recorded in the fight against insurgency and other forms of criminality in the country in the past four years.

The CAS strongly believes that, “a man cannot give what he does not have”. This informed his passion for training and retraining of NAF personnel for effective and efficient service delivery. In his words, “in the race to add value to our society and secure our communities, there is no finishing line.”

For an air force previously beset by significant deficits in funding, equipment, logistics, updated combat doctrine in a new-to-the-nation conflict, Nigeria’s Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar has moved unrelentingly to change the narrative and reposition the force to better confront and defeat the foe, on multiple fronts.

Significantly, in the heat of conflict, he has also ensured that the NAF continues to remain apolitical, professional and commendably responsive in the discharge of its constitutional roles.

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