NAF Acquires Attack Aircraft From Russia, Brazil, Pakistan

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has said the service would soon induct some attack aircraft expected to be acquired from Russia, Brazil and Pakistan.

Abubakar said that the NAF was expecting four Mi-35m attack helicopters from Russia, three Super Tucano from the Brazilian Air Force and three JF-17 Thunder from Pakistan.

The CAS made the comment while speaking at the NAF’s operations seminar with the theme, ‘Developing Effective Air Power Responses to National Security Challenges in Nigeria’ in Abuja on Wednesday.

The PUNCH had reported exclusively on Sunday that the NAF was making efforts to acquire fighter aircraft from Russia, Pakistan and Brazil following a subsisting arms embargo on the country by the United States.

When asked if the US embargo preventing Brazilians from selling the A-29 Super Tucano fighter aircraft to Nigeria had been lifted, he said that the US had been assisting the country in the war on terror and that he did not expect any difficulty on the acquisition of the aircraft.

“All I can tell you is that the US is supporting in the North East, they are helping us with a lot of intelligence, so I don’t see any reason why we should have difficulties,” he said.

Abubakar stated further that the aircraft which would soon be inducted into the NAF included 10 Super Mushack primary trainer from Pakistan.

He added that the service under his leadership also reactivated 13 aircraft which were grounded for maintenance reasons to flying Status.

According to him, the aircraft included “three Mi-24V/35P, two EC-135, one Beechcraft, one falcon, one Super Puma, one DA-42, two DO-228 and two A-109LUHs.”