Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, talking to newsmen
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it's taking drastic steps to cease the upkeep of army plane and different property overseas, Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar has mentioned.
He made the disclosure at a ceremony to mark the completion of upkeep of Mi-35P assault helicopter on the 115 Special Operations Group in Port Harcourt on Saturday.
Abubakar mentioned the measure was supposed to chop price and save the nation the hundreds of thousands spent on sustaining such plane overseas.
“If we had taken the Mi-35P helicopter to Ukraine we must pay for air freight to Ukraine and again to Nigeria. This excludes cost of restore of the plane.
“So, the choice to restore the plane in Nigeria is a part of our plan to avoid wasting the nation international alternate in addition to construct capability of our technicians and engineers.
“This is the very first in the history of the Nigerian Air Force that we are conducting live extension programme (repairs) of our Mi-35P helicopter fleet in Nigeria,” he mentioned.
Abubakar mentioned the restore work was carried out by its international companions with the help of technicians and engineers from the Nigerian Air Force.
He mentioned; “Another laudable achievement is the expeditious completion of engine two modular change on our EC-135 helicopter. We modified it right here moderately than take it to South Africa.
“The restore of the plane regionally introduced our workforce of technicians and engineers the chance to take part and purchase extra information.
“The whole essence is to ensure in no distant future that our technicians will independently carry out repairs on our Mi-helicopter fleets.”