The Nigerian Navy has released the postings of a number its senior officers. The new postings affected Rear Admirals and Commodores. The senior officers are expected to resume in their new stations from end of February to second week of March Hmn…the Armed Forces are set for growth.
The creation of the Central Naval Command — the first fleet command to be created in 35 years, remains the clearest indication of the fact that we are on the cusp of a major injection of capital ships. Midway into the decade of the s, the Navy created a new command — the Logistics Command to oversee supplies and engineering duties. Now, this new command but this time, a fleet command.
Three months later, the Chief of the Air Staff alluded to the fact of the imminent delivery of a minimum of six units of Mil combat-transport helicopters, most probably, further deliveries of the MiSh Terminator, a feared assault helicopter which is currently operated by the air forces of Nigeria, Algeria and Chad. We have our eyes on the ball for unseen developments. We shall be looking out to see if this is the year in which the French offer of four large coastal patrol ships, thirty gunboats and twelve Eurocopter AS Fennec armed naval helicopters is fulfilled.
For the non military-minded, an Air Command or a Naval Command in Nigeria and elsewhere is equivalent to an army division. Moving on, the Nigerian Air Force have also revived hitherto moribund airbases — Minna and Sokoto, the latter specidically with a view to keeping tabs on AQIM-spawned violence near our northwestern frontier. In FY , new aircraft hangars and ground equipment officially said to be F7 AirGuard-related are listed to be constructed at both airbases and in Maiduguri and Makurdi.
That also suggests the imminent delivery of new jets since we at least know that prior to the delivery of F7 jets to Makurdi, CATIC of China constructed new hangars. The Nigerian Army are also said to be in the process of setting up a new division which shall have a bias towards counterinsurgency operations.
