The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has indicated interest in procuring a number of aircraft from Airbus including C-295 tactical transport.
Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, announced on 23 March when he hosted the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Juan Ignacio Sell, at NAF Headquarters in Abuja, that the NAF is looking to partner with the Spanish Government in the areas of aircraft acquisition, training, air operations, intelligence sharing and capacity development in imagery analysis, and is in discussions with Airbus.
The CAS noted that developing bilateral and multilateral partnership when the Nation is faced with myriad of security challenges has become expedient due the global nature of terrorism and its attendant negative impact on the citizenry.
Amao said a partnership with a developed nation like Spain would enable the NAF take advantage of the numerous technological competencies available to address some of the technical challenges the service currently faces especially in intelligence gathering.
The NAF and Airbus of Spain are currently in talks to explore opportunities that could be available for the NAF to tap into, all with the hope of enhancing the NAF’s fleet. “If our interface with Airbus of Spain is anything to go by, I am hopeful that the outcome would go a long way in adding value to our current efforts in all our theatres of operation”, he said.
Juan Ignacio Sell said his country was willing to provide solutions that would support the various operations of the NAF. He also expressed Spain’s willingness to further deepen its partnership with the NAF by posting a Defence Attaché to the Spanish Embassy in Abuja.
Nigeria had earlier expressed interest in acquiring C295W light transports from Airbus, with a delegation visiting Nigeria that October 2016. However, not much is known regarding the status of the endeavor.
