the nigerian air force (naf) is the air branch of the nigerian armed forces.it is the youngest branch of the nigerian armed forces.it is one of the largest in africa, consisting of about 18,000 personnel as at 2021and aircraft including 9 chengdu f-7s, 12 dassault-dornier alpha jets, three jf-17 thunder block ii and 12 embraer emb 314 super tucano aircraft, 24 m-346 fas on order, helicopter gunships, armed attack drones, and military transport aircraft.but during peacekeeping operations in congo and tanganyika, the nigerian army had no air transport of its own, and so in 1962, the government began to recruit cadets for pilot training in various foreign countries, with the first ten being taught by the egyptian air force.the act stated that the 'nigerian air force shall be charged with the defense of the federal republic by air, and to give effect thereto, the personnel shall be trained in such duties as in the air as well as on the ground.'the naf was formed with technical assistance from then west germany (now federal republic of germany following the re-unification of west and east germany).the air force started life as a transport unit with the first aircrews trained in canada, ethiopia and india.the head of the german air force assistance group (gafag) was colonel gerhard kahtz, and he became the first commander of the naf.the nucleus of the naf was thus established with the formation of the nigerian air force headquarters at the ministry of defense.the naf did not acquire combat capability until several mikoyan-gurevich mig-17 aircraft were presented by the soviet union in support of nigeria’s war effort during the nigerian civil war.on 13 august 1967, following several damaging attacks by biafran aircraft, the ussr started delivering first mig-17s from egypt to kano iap, simultaneously sending a large shipment aboard a polish merchant ship.initially two mig-15uti (naf601 and naf 602), and eight mig-17 (naf603 to naf610) was supplied to nigeria.later six il-28 bombers, initially flown upon deployment by egyptian and czech pilots, were delivered from egypt and stationed at calabar and port harcourt.other aircraft included six c-47, 20 do-27/28, and eight westland whirlwind and alouette ii helicopters.during the 1970s, nigeria bought lockheed c-130 hercules from the united states.six were acquired at a total cost of $45 million.25 mikoyan-gurevich mig-21mfs and six mig-21um were delivered in 1975 upon the advent of the murtala-obasanjo administration that replaced the regime of general yakubu gowon.most of these aircraft were deployed, making the naf one of the most formidable air forces in africa during this period.jimi peters wrote: '..the 1975-1980 naf development plan restructured naf formations' into group (air force) level units that reported to air force headquarters.that structure, he went on, was found too cumbersome, and thus two intermediate commands (military formations) were formed in 1978: naf tactical air command and naf training command.they retired in 1991.nigeria purchased 24 aero l-39 albatros armed jet trainers in 1986-87, having retired its fleet of l-29 that were donated to the republic of ghana air force at the inception of the west african monitoring group (ecomog) operations in liberia.a subsequent attempt to expand the fleet by acquiring 27 more in 1991 was not executed.the deal included 12 f-7ni (ni-nigeria) single seat fighter variant, and 3 ft-7ni dual-seat trainer aircraft.the $251 million package included $220 million for 15 aircraft, plus $32 million for armaments: live pl-9c aam, training pl-9 rounds, unguided rockets, and 250/500  kg bombs.the pioneer naf pilots on the aircraft trained in china in 2008, while delivery of the aircraft began in 2009.
nigerian air force | traineraircraft | aermacchi mb-339
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