Nigeria Receives Chinese Artillery, VT4 MBT & STI Tank Destroyer

China's state-owned NORINCO delivered 17 armored vehicles including artillery trucks, VT4 main battle tanks and ST1 tank destroyers to the Nigerian Army (NA) on Wednesday.

The company won the $152 million military equipment and training package last year reportedly owing to its flexible maintenance policies and durability of equipment. The West African country is the first in the world to own these armored vehicles, which are built to carry a minimum of 12 armed personnel.

"The brand new Chinese weapons are in different categories- heavy tanks, light tanks and two types of artillery weapons. The first set of 15 40-foot containers that were offloaded before today were made up of spareparts and accessories of all these equipment," Army’s Chief of Policy and Plans (CPPLANS) Lieutenant General Lamidi Adeosun said.

“Those who will operate them have been trained in China. If not for the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19, we expected some of their trainers to join us here to train more people," Adeosun added.