Military to reorganise Air Force in Feb. – CAS

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, has said that the military authorities will introduce major changes to make the Nigerian Air Force more effective in the ongoing counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in the North-East.

The CAS said that in the proposed restructuring, attention would be given to critical areas in the Air Force, including the Air Surveillance Department, the Armament Department, the Air Tactical Transportation Unit or strategic airlifting, and effective utilisation of the manpower resources of the service.

Amosu said this at the end-of-the-year get together and award night of the NAF in Abuja on Saturday.

He said that the mission statement of the NAF would change by February, 2015with the far reaching changes expected to take place.

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He said that emphasis would be placed on the armament unit and other areas considered critical to the operation of the Air Force as “an Air Force without equipment would not be different from a flying club.”

He said, “I want every member of the Air Force to be proud of this team because we have the best AOCs and commanders in the service. Here in the Air Force, we don’t look for heroes, we have team players in fighting for the nation, the Air Force stands out and we intend to continue.

“Our heroes have demonstrated courage and commitment to the nation, they deserve to be recognised.

“What is my prediction for next year? The war against terrorism is going to continue , which means whatever effort we are putting now, we must be able to double it; as a matter of fact when it appears it is gone, we need to stay around to mop up for a longer period of time, so the war continues.

“So what do we need to do? It is to be ahead of the game, we need to be prepared to integrate all acquired assets; we have gotten a lot of assets and how do we integrate these assets into the existing Nigerian Air Force system?

“As a matter of fact, I predict that the mission statement must change by February next year; so we would attempt to harmonise all manpower capability and equipment.

“We need to congratulate the Armament Department. It is a new thing. Like they used to say,   an Air Force without arms is like a flying club. So, the armament department we must take very seriously.

“We are going to see a lot of changes coming, we have the strategic airlifting; one of the major constraints of the Mali operation was tactical transportation.”