<\/p>\n
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is expected to take delivery of six M-346 fighter aircraft before the end of 2024.<\/p>\n
In November 2023, NAF struck a deal with Messrs Leonardo, an Italian defence company, for the supply of 24 M-346 fighter aircraft.<\/p>\n
The deal is reportedly worth around \u20ac1.2 billion.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Claudio Sabatino, the vice-president of the Italian company, visited NAF headquarters in Abuja and met with Hasan Abubakar, the chief of air staff.<\/p>\n
In a statement by Edward Gabkwet, NAF spokesperson, Sabatino was quoted to have assured Abubakar of the timely delivery of the first batch of the aircraft.<\/p>\n
Sabatino said further agreement between NAF and the company would be necessary to complete some aspects of the projects.<\/p>\n
He added that after the final agreement, the maintenance of the aircraft fleet would not constitute a challenge as there is a binding agreement for the 25-year maintenance support.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sabatino disclosed that the manufacturing of the aircraft fleet has reached an \u201cappreciable state\u201d.<\/p>\n
On his part, Abubakar commended the company for the \u201cassurance of long-term maintenance support\u201d for the aircraft fleet.<\/p>\n
The NAF chief urged the Italian company to set up a maintenance hub in Nigeria to serve the needs of its African clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cReflecting on the journey thus far, Air Marshal Abubakar also acknowledged the challenges overcome and expressed optimism for the future trajectory of the partnership,\u201d the statement reads<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Envisioning the operational impact that the M-346 fighter aircraft, Air Marshal Abubakar underscored its dual role in bolstering training capabilities and augmenting operational effectiveness in diverse mission scenarios.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, the prospect of close air support, air interdiction, and tactical reconnaissance as well as advanced pilot training capabilities inherent in the M-346 fighter aircraft heralded a new prospect for NAF\u2019s operational versatility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is expected to take delivery of six M-346 fighter aircraft before the end of 2024. In November 2023, NAF struck a deal with Messrs Leonardo, an Italian defence company, for the supply of 24 M-346 fighter aircraft. The deal is reportedly worth around \u20ac1.2 billion. On Wednesday, Claudio Sabatino, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-and-security"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28256,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28255\/revisions\/28256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}