By Kingsley Omonobi

There were anxious moments when the Nigeria Air Force planes took to the skies in Kaduna as the NAF celebrated its 46th anniversary.

Reminiscent of the glorious days of the Nigeria Airforce (NAF) of the 80s when it could compete with any of its counterparts  in Africa  especially when it came to the  showing of air power, before  military regime in the country  grounded the fleet systematically, the 2010 ‘Air Expo’ at the NAF Base, Kaduna, which climaxed the activities lined up to mark the 46th anniversary of NAF, showed that  the airforce is  on the rise again. The anniversary equally signalled  the importance of democracy to the growth of the force.

During the period, 1979 to 1983, NAF, under the democratic dispensation of President Shehu Shagari, saw to it that such aircraft like the C-130 Hercules carriers, the Jaguar fighter jets, the Mikoyan Guverish (MIG 21), the Alpha jets, the PUMA  helicopters and the G222 medium range carriers adorned the skies resulting in a very effective and robust airforce that carried out assignments both within and outside our shores remarkably.

Their efforts towards the independence for southern African countries, particularly Zimbabwe and black majority rule in South Africa, are well documented.

But military governments, subsequently, reportedly starved the force of funds to carry out turn around maintenance, periodic depot maintenance  or D & C-checks on aircraft thus grounding the fleet.

It was not until the advent of the democratic process in 1999  that efforts  to bring back the airforce began. In the time of Air Marshal Jonah Donfa Wuyep as chief of the air staff, CAS,  the situation was so bad that even pilots had  no planes to fly, forcing the then air chief to embark on training of pilots and retraining of personnel.

When Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike (then air marshal) took over as the CAS, he went several steps further, repairing and rehabilitating some C-130s and the G222s as well as convincing the Federal Government to acquire more planes for NAF  in view of its importance to Nigeria’s new status as a peacekeeping giant in the world and the need to sustain the new found security challenge in the Niger Delta as well as the looming Gulf of Guinea projections.

He went further and established the Airforce Institute of Technology (AFIT), knowing fully well that the challenges in front once the reinvigoration of the NAF commences would need a lot of research and training to sustain.

By the time the baton fell on Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin as the CAS following the elevation of Dike to the position of chief of the defence staff,  NAF was on the upswing.

Since then, the Airforce has moved with the speed of light resulting in its acquiring and assembling platforms including one of the most sophisticated fighter aircraft of this generation, the F-7NI fighter/attack supersonic plane, the ATR-42 maritime patrol aircraft, the 109 light utility attack Augusta helicopter as well as upgrading the abilities of the institute of technology.

Before then, the CAS reactivated existing platforms like the flagship of the Special Operations Group (SOG), the Mi-35 helicopter gunships, the L39Z albatross trainer which is also convertible, the DO 228, the MB 335 and the ABT-18 ac.

So when the activities lined up to mark the 46th anniversary  were reeled out by Petinrin  and the first  ‘Air Expo’ to hold in the West African sub region was mentioned as one of the events, observers were curious as to what the NAF had to offer.

Interestingly, NAF did not disappoint on the D-Day. The aerial displays carried out by the NAF  pilots in the presence of capacity crowds that included the commander in chief, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and scores of foreign aviation experts as well as the diplomatic corps showed the NAF reveling once again as a capable airforce.

Participating in the Air Expo were over 30 foreign aviation companies including Aermacchi of Italy, Augusta Westland, Alenia Aeronautica of Italy, Aviocesis, Belspetsvneshtecnica of Belarus, CACTIC of China, DOIYATEC of Israel, International Jets of USA, Northwales of UK, OGMA of Portugal, Platus of Switzerland, RUAG of Germany and Selex Galileo of Italy.

20 other firms from Nigeria joined them. They include AVSATEL, El-Jahab Mubarak and DANA. Speaking during the occasion, Petinrin  said “the essence is to create a forum for stakeholders in the defence and aviation industries to interact with a view to strengthening the industry in line with extant global practices”. “In our sights is an air show that will assemble enough industry players to make West Africa ’s aviation industry  more vibrant as it rises to the challenge of the 21st century”, the CAS stressed.

Explaining the advantages of the Air Expo, the CAS said, “The decision to domicile major inspections and maintenance programmes within the country have led to several companies like Alenia Aeronatica, Augusta Westland and the Belarusian BSVT taking firm steps to establish their service and maintenance centres in various parts of the country”.

“Working in our Ikeja hanger in partnership with the NAF’s Aeronautical Engineering Services Limited (AETSL), Alenia is reactivating the G222 medium lift aircraft which is the earlier variant of the C27J. On completion of the purpose-built hanger planned for Ilorin , home of the G222s, Alenia and AETSL will carry out its function there”.

“The cooperation with Augusta Westland is yielding a service and maintenance facility in another Airforce hanger in Ikeja for Augusta helicopters operating within the sub region. BVST of Belarus is also expected to work with our men in Port Harcourt to carry out major maintenance works on the Mi 35P series while the periodic maintenance of the Alpha Jets, less engines, will also take off in Kainji”.

El-Jahab Mubarak, the indigenous concern which produced the sashes band containing the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), worn by the president on his assumption of office and that of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) with which Vice President Namadi Sambo was decorated, showed its capability to rise up to challenges of accoutrements for the airforce and other services.

For AFIT, its importance to the growth and new challenges of the NAF were reinforced when one of its research products, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ‘AMEBO 1’, which was designed, built and flight tested by students in the M.Sc programme of the institute, was tested successfully.

Foreign and Nigerian aviation experts were not only excited about the unmanned plane but became curious about how the institute, under such a short time, could come up with a UAV that is the hallmark of developed countries like the USA, RUSSIA, and other world powers.

In a paper presented during the air show, titled, ‘AFIT: Challenges & Future Perspectives in the Development of National Aviation and Aerospace Technology’, it was disclosed that “in future, there will be increasing pressure on suppliers to achieve excellence in programme management, quality and on time delivery. And because of prohibitive costs of aircraft and space vehicles, more research efforts will be devoted to improving existing ones rather than developing new ones which Nigerian must catch up with.”

Hence, the thrust of AFIT’S research efforts will be to develop in-house capacity to design and produce UAV’s by 2011 and a truly indigenous aircraft by 2014. Already the institute has the capability of researching into modification of weapon platforms and extension of the shelf-life of air munitions.

It can also train and deliver solutions on airfield lighting systems and alternate sources of power and logistics management while it is also poised to assist in rectification of complex maintenance problems reported on NAF aircraft.

With these developments, it can therefore be said that Petinrin’s submission that, “the military is a foremost institution in developing countries which often provides the direction for modernization and development as technology in the hands of the military is an investment with a dual effect, enhancement of national power and national development through technological innovation,” is apt.