Nigerian Air Force Commissions Five Pakistan-made Super Mushak Trainer Aircraft

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) inducted five Super Mushshak trainer aircraft into its inventory on August 9 for the primary training of its pilots at 401 Flying Training School (FTS), Kaduna.

At the same time, 16 ab-initio student pilots, including 2 female cadets, graduated from the 401 FTS.

The newly inducted aircraft, which were the NAF’s first batch of 10 Super Mushshak aircraft procured from Pakistan, were recently received by the NAF. The inducted aircraft are all brand new and are fitted with digital glass cockpit in line with current practice in the global aviation industry.

Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, said, “we have embarked on qualitative training and acquisition of new platforms and other supporting equipment for the Armed Forces and security agencies. We have also sanitised the procurement process of military hardware with a view to eliminating corruption and inefficiency. This has contributed in no small way to the acquisition of these new aircraft without any encumbrances,” he stated.

Earlier in his welcome address, the CAS commended the efforts of the Federal Government in acquiring several operational and training platforms for the NAF as well as for the huge investment in infrastructural and human resource development in the last 2 years.

According to the CAS, “We have attained between 63 to 70 per cent aircraft serviceability rate as against about 35 per cent aircraft serviceability rate 2 years ago.”

The CAS further stated that the capacity development efforts of the NAF had translated into better operational efficiency in the North East and other parts of the country. The CAS also noted that the defence architecture of the NAF Bases had improved tremendously in the past 2 years with the training assistance the NAF receives from the British Military Advisory Training Team (BMATT).

Pakistan’s 14 Mushshak trainer are on order and 5 have been delivered as of July 2017.