The Nigerian Air Force has taken delivery of the second and final Beechcraft King Air 360ER aircraft for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance missions, and transport duties. The aircraft arrived (Registration: NAF 206) last week.
In October 2022, Nigeria signed contracts for ISR aircraft and UAVs. The Air Force selected Beechcraft King Air 360i and Da-62 for its ISR requirements. The value of the deal for the two Beechcraft is N10,860,000,000 ($24,794,520.30), which includes spares and ground support equipment, but its completion timeframe was undisclosed. Nevertheless, the Beechcraft King Air 360I, Diamond Da-62 ISR, and other ISR platforms will support national forces’ missions in the West African region. The first Beechcraft King Air 360I arrived in November 2023.
The two Beechcraft King Air 360I were acquired as attrition for two Beechcraft King Air B350 that crashed last year. One aircraft (NAF 201) crashed on Sunday 21 February 2021 while returning to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International, Abuja from Minna Airport after reporting engine failure. A second crashed on Friday 22 May, 2021 during an official visit to the northern state of Kaduna, killing Nigeria’s army chief, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru.
The Beechcraft King Air 360ER, selected by the NAF for its ISR requirements, will undergo conversion into a special mission aircraft dedicated to Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance operations. This strategic decision aligns with the NAF’s commitment to bolstering air power, projection capabilities, and air combat training. Over the years, the Nigerian Air Force has acquired a plethora of aircraft to boost its operations.
Textron Aviation’s Beechcraft (formerly Raytheon) King Air 350i is a popular basis for ISR and intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) conversions. Once seen as a budget alternative to larger ISR aircraft, light ISR aircraft like the King Air have found a niche complementing unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), and offering greater situational awareness on-scene. The aircraft will be equipped with both radar and EO/IR sensors, as well as comprehensive defensive aids.
The King Air 360I can be fitted with a variety of payloads such as a moving target indicator, synthetic aperture radar, EO/IR (FLIR), streaming video datalink, self-protection systems, and a wide variety of high-performance communications systems.
The mission equipment for Nigeria’s version may likely include a belly-mounted Selex Seaspray 7500E active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, an L3 WESCAM AN/AAQ-35 EO/IR turret – better known as the MX-15HDi.
Both ISR aircraft will join two ATR 42 maritime patrol aircraft, two Cessna Citation CJ3, one other Diamond DA42, and two Super King Air in providing comprehensive aerial surveillance and maritime patrol capabilities to the Nigerian Air Force.