The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has finished factory acceptance testing on its first three Leonardo M-346FA fighter-attack aircraft, clearing the jets for delivery from Italy after a test campaign that ran from 29 June to 9 July 2026.
Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, the NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, announced the milestone in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, 27 July 2026. A joint delegation of NAF and Ministry of Defence (MOD) officials carried out the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) at Leonardo Aircraft Division’s plant in Venegono Superiore, Italy. The 3 aircraft, tail numbers NAF 01, NAF 02 and NAF 03, met all contractual, technical and airworthiness requirements during the evaluation, Ejodame said. He described the process as “comprehensive verification by representatives of the NAF, MOD and Leonardo Aircraft Division”, paving the way for the jets to join the NAF inventory.
Beyond the flight and systems checks, the visiting delegation held talks with Leonardo on pilot and maintenance training, spares logistics and long-term fleet support. The team also toured the Full Mission Simulator and virtual-reality training rigs that will prepare NAF aircrew and technicians to operate the new type. Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke, called the acceptance “another strategic step in strengthening the Nigerian Air Force’s operational capability”. He said the aircraft’s dual role as trainer and combat jet would expand the service’s capacity for precision strike, close air support and air interdiction as it responds to security threats across the country.
The M-346FA is a fighter-attack derivative of the M-346 Master, an advanced jet trainer built by the Italian firm Leonardo. Nigeria’s order covers 24 aircraft in a deal worth roughly $1.4 billion, structured in 4 tranches of 6 jets bound for two NAF squadrons. The Nigerian presidency confirmed the order in May 2023, and the first airframe flew with full NAF livery on 27 April 2026, a step that usually precedes acceptance testing by a few months. Leonardo had initially targeted delivery of the first 6 aircraft by the end of 2024, a date that moved by roughly a year and a half before this month’s test campaign closed out. Leonardo vice president Claudio Sabatino has since reaffirmed the company’s commitment to timely delivery of the remaining aircraft. However, neither Leonardo nor the NAF has published a firm schedule for the other 21 jets.
In terms of specifications, the M-346FA carries a Grifo multi-mode radar and a defensive aids subsystem, paired with 9 external hardpoints. Nigeria’s jets are cleared to carry AIM-9 Sidewinder and IRIS-T air-to-air missiles, AGM-65 Maverick and guided bombs for ground strikes, plus 20mm or 12.7mm gun pods. Two Honeywell F124-GA-200 turbofans give the aircraft a top speed near Mach 0.95 and a service ceiling of 13,716 meters. Range runs to about 1,925 kilometers on internal fuel and roughly 2,550 kilometers with external tanks. That combination of weapons carriage and trainer economics is the aircraft’s main selling point.
Three-color liquid-crystal-display multi-function screens and a head-up display give M-346FA pilots a cockpit closer to that of a modern fighter than a basic trainer, and the type is compatible with night-vision goggles for low-light operations. Leonardo also markets an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance role for these aircraft, with sensors that can feed real-time imagery to ground units, and pitches the jet as a realistic adversary aircraft for training exercises with frontline fighter squadrons. The M-346FA is set to replace the NAF’s ageing Dassault Alpha Jet, Aero L-39ZA Albatros and Aermacchi MB-339AN fleets, aircraft that have flown alongside the JF-17 Thunder and Embraer A-29B Super Tucano in the campaign against Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, as well as in operations against armed groups further west. Former Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Oladayo Amao credited that mixed fleet, along with the NAF’s drones, as a factor behind battlefield gains against militants in comments made in late 2022, before the M-346FA order was finalized.
The purchase agreement includes a 25-year logistics and maintenance package. Leonardo is setting up a maintenance hub inside Nigeria and running part of the pilot and engineering training alongside the Italian Air Force at Galatina and Decimomannu. Aneke discussed the program with Leonardo executives in Milan in January 2026, a meeting that also touched on the parallel delivery of 10 AW-109 Trekker helicopters; 6 of those 10 had completed their own factory acceptance testing by early July. For now, the acceptance test closes out the first tranche and shifts the program from testing to logistics.
