Air chief: Why NAF is yet to fully deploy Super Tucano aircraft

Oladayo Amao, chief of air staff, says the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is yet to fully deploy the Super Tucano aircraft since some equipment are yet to be delivered.

Speaking on Friday during a dialogue with the media, Amao said although the air force personnel have begun using the aircraft, there are plans to organise further training for officers on use of the aircraft.

The air chief also said the delivery of other equipment for full deployment of the aircraft should take place “soon”.

“The military equipment has to be manufactured with time and not all aspects of the Super Tucano are delivered yet,” he said.

“We can’t use them at night now because the US personnel are coming into Nigeria to train our pilots on the night capability, and it also requires some MB tools for us to use. These have not yet been delivered but the fact is that we are using them to strike.

“The precision strike aspect of it cannot be carried out because we have not gotten the precision strike equipment, but we can use them to drop normal bombs and engage cannons and rocket.

“We are using them for what we can use them for now, but the whole delivery of this equipment will come up before the end of this year; to be able to get every equipment on this aircraft and to maximise their use.

“We have other equipment that we are using that are not made known to the public now and because of that, we have achieved surprising feat against the bandits.

“These equipment have been a game changer. The air operations have been successful. We have been carrying out air operations and have been supporting the ground troops and these air operations have been as a result of the intelligence we have been getting from intelligence agencies.

“We have been doing our best and we have had insinuations that supplementary budget has been approved. Things are still gong on. The bandits are still operating and we have to continue to use what we have before the equipment arrive and hopefully, the equipment will arrive as soon as possible.”

In October 2021, the federal government said it had taken delivery of all the 12 A-29 Super Tucano fighter jets expected from the United States.