NAF Graduates 676 To Meet Contemporary Security Needs

• NAF Graduation
• The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has graduated 676 personnel in an effort to improve operations.
• The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, gave the figure at the Regiment Training Centre (RTC), Kaduna, on Saturday.

He said that NAF would continue to recruit and train more personnel to boost air operations across the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN ) reports that the 676 personnel include Basic Regiment Officers, Regimental Sergeant Majors, Force Protection in Complex Air and Ground Environment (CAGE), as well as the Basic and Advanced Regiment Airmen/Airwomen.

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Abubakar assured that NAF would continue to pursue improvement of force protection capabilities of personnel to meet the country’s defence requirements.

“This has necessitated the drive for massive recruitment and training of regiment personnel to complement Nigerian Air Force air operations across various theatres.

Abubakar said that monumental investments by the Federal Government in the acquisition of new platforms and other critical infrastructure were better secured than in the past.

According to him, NAF has also expanded its regiment structure to meet contemporary security challenges.

“This administration recently restructured the 407 Air Combat Training Group and established the 41 Force Protection Wing in Kainji.

“The wing is to serve as a dedicated unit to ensure credible force protection and base defence for units in Kainji which has just been expanded with the planned induction of the A-29 Super Tucano aircraft.

“Also, 65 regiment personnel made up of 20 officers and 45 airmen have been nominated to attend various specialised regiment courses in Egypt to further improve the capacity and quality of NAF regiment personnel,” he said.

He gave the assurance that plans were being made to train more regiment personnel overseas to sustain capacity development in the regiment specialty.

“In keeping up with this trajectory, the Nigerian Air Force will reinvigorate capabilities that hitherto declined, develop new capabilities for the changing security environment and adopt processes to reflect the broad range of security requirements.

The NAF boss charged the personnel to uphold the values of the military including loyalty, discipline, honesty, intelligence, motivation, accountability, judgment, decisiveness, teamwork and courage.

“You should always strive to be good ambassadors of the service by upholding its core values of integrity first, service before self, and excellence,” Abubakar charged.

He said that NAF’s leadership remained committed to enthroning professionalism, urging the personnel to put what they learnt from the course to maximum use in order to safeguard more lives and property within their areas of responsibility.

He told the graduating students to always guard their utterances and conduct at all times, and not allow themselves to be used by ‘disgruntled and criminal elements’.

“You must always submit yourselves to civil authority, and protect our democracy.

“The safety and security of our precious people and communities must remain our primary priority.

He also expressed NAF’s loyalty to Nigeria, and praised President Muhammadu Buhari for unwavering support for NAF.

Earlier, the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Ground Training Command, AVM Idi Amin, said the graduation was in line with NAF’s core objectives.