BEEGEAGLE’S BLOG
8 May, 2014
In what promises to be the biggest retooling exercise of the Nigerian Armed Forces since the glorious 1980-83 epoch, President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the release of the princely sum of US$1 billion for the procurement of military hardware in a modernisation and capacity-building drive for the Nigerian Armed Forces.
President Jonathan made this detail known while addressing delegates to the World Economic Summit taking place at Abuja. He indicated that this is an initial effort in direct intervention funding which is inadequate and it portends the release of additional funds going forward.
Gentlemen, we are finally on the same page as our Federal Government after so many years of yelling about the need to have the military retooled.
Before we lose our bearing and knowing fully well that this blog is firmly on the radar of Nigeria’s entire DEFSEC establishment right up to the topmost leadership, how do you think that this boon should be spent? Please note that your views will be assessed and if swayed by the superiority of your argument, the decision makers shall take in board your suggestions.
So given the available sum, how do you think our military can gain the most mileage and put the spring back in its traditionally fighting-fit steps? No rambling or inoperable wishlists please. Just a triservice shopping list which takes care of requirements for asymmetric and conventional warfare alike.
Beegeagle's Blog 
For us to Really Dominate Boko Haram,
We need the Following :
For Airforce
1. ALX super Tucano’s 3 Squadrons will do justice to Sambisa, Gwoza hill, Mandara Mountaains, the Bama Desert Areas and Chad.
2. 2 Squadrons of Mil-17Sh Terminators and Mi-35 Different Varaints all configured for Night Operation
3. 1 Squadron of Tactical Drones
This is to Help in Vertical Envelopment and 24-7 Continuous Monitoring and Insertion of Special Forces
4. Laser Guided Bombs (any will do)
Army
New IFVs and APCs we need them in their hundreds for at least 4 Battalions that were deployed
Newer Artillery and Howitzers preferrably a Long Range one
GBADS
Surveillance Drones for Special Forces
Navy
AShM Helicopters
2 Frigates (Beeg has named them all )
1 Destroyer
3 Corvettes
2 Seaward Defence Boats
A Squadron of Super Seasprite ( as part of Excess Defence Articles from USA)
But primarily tho, We need Specific Mission Equipments. For Raiding of Sambisa Top of the List are the Attack and Transport Helicopters.
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@ Oga to4shizzle, na wa for this your prescription o. I frankly think your prescription is an over kill. You are diving into the real of conventional warfare which is not what BH is doing right now. I think we need first and foremost good intel on the enemy (I am tempted to think we already have that) what is their core motivation, who are their financiers, there are several rumors of security forces being warned hours before attacks how is that possible, who is responsible,. Based on the intel I believe we can settle issue like choice of weapon, oh there is also political etc . Our armed forces will definitely need as much equipment as they can lay their hands on though.
@Tope. E be laik u dey NAF sha. See ojukokoro at play…
Haba…take am easy now, pally :-). I said #NO WISHLISTS# and no, US$1 billion won’t get you all of that. Again, it is too slanted towards the NAF.
Assume a formula of US$325m each for NAF and NN and US$250m for the NA, leaving US$100 million for DIA/NIA/SSS/ONSA.
Now, rewind and shoot again buddy. Bear in mind our contemporary challenges and the need to lay a takeoff foundation for outmoded or useless conventional warfare assets. To make a dent and to meet the exigencies of time, you must prescribe the acquisition of NEW and FACTORY-REFURBISHED EQUIPMENT.
Where dem Doziez, Solorex, Mighty Yagz, Gbash10, Asorock, Are James, Colonel and Agostinho? Mek una nuh yarn any biased dust sha o :-). A workable and balanced TRISERVICE list is what I seek…before una bring NA ONLY, NN or I DIE and VIVA NAF list.
So get started, brothers. I shall submit my own list later tonight.
It is very important to leave the Navy out of this intervention money. They have been more able to articulate long term and are also able to get help from friendly navies. So because of the importance of the gulf of guinea they will always be well funded.
The NAF is the area where national capability to project power is lacking, both into the gulf of guinea and over the entire northern border areas. All manner of airborne platforms are required from deep strike, air defence to subsonic insurgent killers which should be in their hundreds.
The NA stuff should be mainly Carl Gustav, Super accurate mortars, MRAPs, army helicopters (better second hand for now), communications, modern armour and lots of ammunition for MLRSs, mortars bombs, RPGs, stun grenades, sniper rifles.
First of, Kudos to the CIC, 1 billion usd it’s a bold step by Nigerian standard.
Oga beeg, somebody needs to advice the president, on how to get the biggest bang for his buck, before the wolves get their hands on this money.
Your job description fit change soon o.
If I start making my list, we go reach 15 billion usd
But this is a once in a generation opportunity. The president needs an adviser, who can make this money go farther than it’s value.
It has to be leveraged to get the most possible assets for our armed forces.
Some of your ideas in the past, were
(1) To get different ministries and businesses to make a “patriotic contribution” to our nations defense .
(2) A savvy mix of factory refurbished assets and brand new ones would provide more value for our dollar.
(3) DEAL SWEETNERS should be sought and demanded in every purchase
This is too good to be true ( though personally i feel this still too small for an ailing defsec), I am seriously giving the MiG29SMT some thought (but won’t mind the MiG 35’s in the future), The Chinese can help us handle the Navy Modernisation since Nigeria will likely get preferential treatment/credit for the Chinese Exim bank. I am of the opinion that we use that opportunity to get more of the P18N series as well as some of the 054 Frigates (of course fully armed) and possibly a couple of 052 destroyers over a period of time, freeing up more funds from the $1billion to be used for the Army and Air force re-equipping which is more urgent at the moment. A start up mix of SU25’s for COIN purposes, SU30’s and MiG29’s should be ok , while we talk about acquiring MSTA self propelled Howitzers and T90 tanks (Russian army standard), BM-30 Smerch ( trust me those Sambisa camps will be history) and finally we should be talking os SAMS, possibly HQ 9’s with all these coming with Tech transfer and serves on a short term, while Developing based on tech received should be our long term goal
ANd i forgot to add, Mil28as well as Hinds to my list
@Oga To4shizzle, it is just over 1 billion dollars, highest 1.1 billion dollars, not 100 billion dollars.
Abi you wan borrow military money? This your list get as e be oh.
$1 billion is a whole lot of money.
I think the emphasis should be on intelligence assets as well as Night Vision based equipment and I hope that the Super Tucanos also come with the requisite targeting systems.
Scout & medium lift helos (fitted with appropriate defence aids) are required for recce and for mobility of special forces troops. We should be able to dominate the area.
But the best of all would be one of those American C-130 gun ships. They have new ones being delivered, so maybe we can plead for one of the older spectre gunships through EDA.
The Americans wouldn’t sell AC- 130s to even her closest allies. Best bet is the Airbus type gunships.
It is worth a try, although the same is being done by the Italians with the C-27J Spartans. I don’t think any of their allies have asked and been turned down, but I could be wrong. I don’t think it is like the F-22s where there is actual legislation preventing their sale to another country
Times are changing. They might relent as the older gunships are being replaced by more advance ones.
I have said same on this forum many times but people won’t agree. Leave AC 130 alone.
The technology is even not so easy to master in terms of operational skills.
Shooting volleys of high calibre artillery with unbelievable accuracy from inside a moving aeroplane is not a small thing. I also suspect the Airbus equivalent was started as a pan European effort to develop a similar system after the Americans refused to sell.
Several billion dollars should after this be made available for the various arms of the military to re-equip from bottom up. I will not reel out the usual list as it has been made known countless times to those who hold the purse strings.
After the planned auditing and a few other inputs, I guess we should know what arsenals to purchase. Unfortunate it took a terror group that wants to try to bring us to our knees to react.
At the same time, that 1 billion usd is at best just scratching the surface but would be a lot useful for short term measures.
Since Mr President said US$1 billion – and more to come, draw up a list based on NA US$250m, NN US$325m and NAF US$325m and after that, draw up a SEPARATE triservice list against US$500 million of Preferential Buyers Credit given by CHINA EXIM Bank.
$1 billion, I assume does not include Super Tucanos costs, and upgrade of old NAF aircraft those were promised before this new crisis special fund.
If you want to buy NAF aircraft from this $1 billion, it will not make any noticeable impact.
To play safe, I will split it as 50% army, 25% air force, 25% navy.
Navy $250m
==========
1. $70m…Reactivate and upgrade NNS Aradu to a last another minimum of 15 years with brand new engines, second hand Otomat missiles and Aspide missiles, new Guided Torpedoes, and now add anti-torpedo decoys.
2. $40m… Modular removable launchers and their C-803 anti-ship missiles and TY-90 anti-aircraft missiles, chaff and flare dispensers and anti-torpedo decoys for the two P18N stealth OPVs coming from China.
3. $60m…units of 3 Harbin Z-9EC full ASW capacity fully armed anti-submarine warfare helicopters with all sea search radar, dipping sonar, torpedoes, and configured to launch C-803 anti-ship missile. They will operate from any ship on combat mission, even NNS Thunder becomes a powerful warship by carrying one of these helicopters in high threat zone.
4. $60m…3 units of long range helicopters for naval use, range must be minimum 1,200km with or without external fuel, we need a patient and careful search for such a naval helicopter. To serve as long range utility helicopter for quick response to an emergency 500km off our coastline deep offshore.
5. $40m…I leave chief of naval staff to help us use it for urgent naval needs we public don’t know about.
Air force $250m
============
1. $250m….6 units of Su-30 Flanker jets, second hand but with long useful service life still remaining on them and upgraded to Su-30 MK standards. Must add canards, vector thrust, minimum of 300km range radar, and armed with Beyond Visual Range missiles, Anti-ship missiles, and Laser/GPS Guided Bombs.
2. Super Tucanos have already been paid for before now, Brazil bought about $10 Billion worth of crude oil from us, so we should use part of that money for balance of trade adjustment and buy 24 units of Super Tucanos, 12 units single seat version, 12 units double seat versions. All units configured for combat. Urgent lease 6 units from Brazil now, and return them when we get our brand new Tucanos.
Army $500m
==========
I will focus only on urgent need to counter all Boko Haram open attacks and limit them to only suicide bombing.
Emphasis will be on defence of every town and village within zone of 150km from Nigerian border in Taraba, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe states.
I will limit myself to what we can buy and get delivered in one month before Boko kidnaps 1,000 more girls. I reduce imports to a limit because it can take 6 months to arrive, even if second hand, we still have to train men to use new weapons.
I will later this weekend write a war/fire-fight simulation between a squad of 12 Nigerian soldiers garrison defending a village from 50 Boko Haram fighters attacking, for us to see how these weapons can be used effectively on the battlefield.
1. $200m….signal illumination flares, smoke grenades (hand dispensed and rifle launched), modern medium range communication equipment (May be a Thuraya satellite phone), NIGHT VISION equipment, top quality body armour/bullet proof vests, high power day and night vision long range binoculars, 40mm under barrel grenade launcher attachment for AK-47 rifle, all these for each and every soldier.
2. $50m….1,000 units of DENEL Y-3 Automatic-Self Loading High Velocity Multiple Rounds Tripod Stand Grenade Launcher with electro-optical targeting and firing range of 2km with dual function as mortar artillery. I don’t know the market price, I estimated the cost.
3. $100m….2,000 units of up armoured Toyota Hilux 4×4 all terrain vehicles to carry Y-3 Automatic Grenade launchers, 12.7mm machine gun, 14.5mm heavy guns.
Quick contracts to up armour the Toyotas to protect users against small arms fire, explosive splinters and shrapnel.
IFV or APC imported will come late, we have no time to lose, if we face 1,000 girls kidnapped every month, the country will be badly hit if these mass kidnaps are not stopped very quickly.
4. $150m….100 units of a NATO standard Infantry Fighting Vehicle armed with 30mm cannon and other standard weapons, engine speed 70km/h minimum, able to carry 7 soldiers minimum, armour protection against small arms, grenades, and artillery shell splinters.
BTR-3U is cheap and ideal, but Ukraine faces war threat from Russia and may not want to sell to us quick second hand. BMP-3 is double the price of BTR-3U. Chinese IFV are easy to buy now second hand but not very good products. Let’s not waste money buying low quality.
$1.5m per IFV is a good choice for now, quick delivery is important.
The extra $500 million from CHINA EXIM bank, should go for Nigerian army air arm.
Whole $500m….
===========
15 units of excellent condition second hand Mi-35 Helicopter gunships with night warfare capabilities.
15 units of excellent condition second hand Mi-171 sh armed transport helicopters.
All must be upgraded and modernized helicopters with long useful life remaining as second hand value.
No buying of crap or near scrap helicopters, they wont last long after heavy use.
Acquire all hanger support facilities, maintenance and helicopter munitions/ordinance for rapid response team to fly to any trouble spot in North East at short notice, to arrive with troop reinforcement and cannon/rocket fire close air support within 20 minutes of distress call from ground troops or the police/public/government agencies.
This will eliminate delayed or failed response from NAF helicopters in critical emergencies and vital execution of operations. Let NAF have their current and ordered Helicopters plus their Tucano and Alpha jets for needed action, especially when the operation is not an emergency.
Long Live Nigeria, Amen !
@ Augustine your analysis makes a lot of sense, but permit me to say, the Navy can be ‘left’ out of this immediate acquisition, Why ?The Chinese EXIM bank can help out here over a period of time since the immediate threat isn’t form the sea. I Mentioned MiG29’s in my earlier comment becos i chose to look beyond now i.e post BH, Tucanos (nothing personal) even though are good for COIN will not help us when it comes to power projection bearing in mind that distance in Africa is now a thing of the past as a result of Plane purchase, bad as e bad make we purchase MiG29 for starters, you know as Naija be when this issue is over you’ll hear how the Tucano ‘was used to shoot down an alien warship from space’, something the T50 cant achieve. My reasoning is to grab the grabable NOW, so that we don’t begin to hear stories that touch in the future, while keeping an eye on the JF17 thunder Pak deal.
🙂 lol.
I don dey fear Tope sha. D guy eye strong nor be small. See privatisation of commonwealth in favour of the NAF.
In my opinion, I’m think Rapid response, Rapid response. Air mobility.
We’d require a mix of Light attack helicopters and heavy transport helicopters with night vision capabilities for our Rapid response teams.
We’d also require Intelligence gathering and airborne surveillance equipments.
‘The millitary is not a viable part of the economy’ so said our august finance minister in a past statement. Yet this is the same millitary that is now being used to protect the ‘economicaly viable WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM for Africa’ meeting that is now ongoing in Abuja. The WEF Africa meeting was supposed to be Nigeria’s ‘coming out’ party to announce our arrival on the World Economic Stage as Africa’s biggest economy and the 26th biggest economy in the workd with a GDP of $510 billion – yet it is being overshadowed by security concerns- two bombings on the outskirts of Abuja and most heartbreaking- the kidnap by BH of well over 200 school girls in Chibok Borno State. This could happen because the Government has refused to muster the political willl to adequately retool our millitary to fight the insurgency. Now we have exposed our short commings to the whole world- Africa’s biggest economy cannot protect its most vulnerable citizens (young school girls- the mothers of tommorow)- and is reduced to receiving help from the U.S., Britain and France etc. Now in true Nigerian style- the Govt has been shamed by the world press coverage of this shameful event into releasing $1billion dollars towards millitary equipment purchase. What happened to ‘competing demands’ syndrome? Make no mistake, but for the brave and consistent campaign by the affected Parents, the Civil/Human rights organisations in the country and the attention of the world press (who were shamed into action), the Nigerian Govt would have swept this matter under the carpet. The First Lady even had the effontry to have some of the organisers of the ‘bring back our girls’ campaign arrested- and they were only released after the World Press (BBC, France 24 and Al-Jazeera) carried the story. Oga Beegz and other cybergenerals on this blog have been harping FOR YEARS about the need to have our Armed Forces properly retooled – instead of relying on Excess Defense Articles (‘cast offs’) from other countries to equip our Armed Forces but to no avail. We have also been appealing to the Millitary to have Oga Beegz embedded/given press releases on the ongoing operations in the North East of the country so as to provide a balanced reportage on this well respected blog- which has recently gone over the THREE MIILLION hits mark – again to no avail. Thus the millitary is losing the propaganda/news war- always being caught on the back foot by the BH propaganda machine/negative reporting of the BBC and other news organisations that do not have the best interests of our country at heart. What would it cost our Defence HQ to sponsor Oga Beegz to tour the operational areas or even pass over press releases for publication on this blog? What would it cost the DSS, Civil Defence Corp, the Army Navy or Airforce to provide financial sponsorship to this blog? Well madam Finance Minister- your great comming out party has been overshadowed by security concerns because our Govt refuses to do the right thing and splash out on our millitary to upgrade its capabilities to reflect our status as one of Africa’s key countries. THE FIRST BUSINESS OF GOVT IS SECURITY- and if the Govt cannot provide this then it has no right to exist. Hopefully – our Govt’s ‘eye don clear well well’ and now it will do the right thing and equip our Army, Navy and Airforce with the equipment needed to do its job of protecting our country and its territorial integrity from those that mean us harm. If this kidnap saga had happened in Algeria (which takes its millitary and defence needs very seriously)- special operations troops backed with helicopters, drones, armoured vehicles etc would have dealt with the insurgents and freed the girls within 48-72 hours of the kidnap. Nigeria waits for THREE WEEKS and releases conflicting information (‘the terrorists have been surrounced’ and then ‘we have no idea where the girls are’ etc) before reluctanctly being forced to act by the oppobrium of the world. WHAT A SHAME!!!- What then is the pride in carrying a Nigerian Passport knowing that your Government cannot protect you or stand up for you when you are in trouble? CRY OUR BELOVED COUNTRY!
I would say more of attack choppers for the army (mi24), for the airforce (mi28), and special forces kamov blackshark…… Heavy lift capacity helicopters fairly used from USA to service infantry and special forces, 24 of this will do…….. Monitoring equipments and laser designators for special forces,monitoring boko haram, Tucano plane for air support for the army, and precision bombing of targets designated by SF, for the navy refurbishment of aradu and bringing all systems back online, if we can do this tto aradu, anyother ship, will go the same way……… More btr 3’s for the army, with the remote weapons system we need to buy full specification, not the ijebu spending, lots of v-hull vehicles from S.A for the army also………and better food rations for the troops
And lots of night vision.. I will say we take the fight to BH at night,not day time….wake them from sleep with artillery strikes and rapid deployments of SF using heavy lift choppers
Doctor’s prescription
Yessir !!
Let’s not forget maybe later tranches of money can be used for the JF17 programme.
For now no jf 17 or mbt
Yes General Tim. More pressing issues right now. Was why I proposed ‘later’.
US$1Billion. Should just be the start.
The army needs at least US$1Billion to recapitalized.
The NAF needs about the same.
The navy is currently being recapitalized, and probably needs less money.
The three branches of the military should be treated as failed banks – recapitalized, their internal processes audited and if necessary revamped.
Let’s not forget how we got here – We need to rescue the Chibok girls. The money should be spent on equipment that will make the rescue of the girls simpler and the destruction of Boko Haram easier.
Categories
1) ISTAR
2) Precision Strike
3) CAS
4) Persistent Surveillance
5) Night Fight Equipment for men, vehicles, and aircraft
6) Army – IFVs for recce units
7) Army – MRAPs and APCs for infantry units
8) Army – MBTs for armored units
9) Army – Standardized body armor and kitting for troops
10) NAF – Increasing Combat Sorties
11) NAF – Ensuring 24hr patrols
If we can categories our suggestions, it will make it easier for non-defense experts to digest.
I will expand on the categories at a later time.
Please we need lots d below for d NA, we cannot have troops runing around in pickup boots
The world’s 10 best armoured personnel carriers
11 December 2013
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Armoured personnel carriers, popularly called APCs, have occupied an important role in military operations since World War I. Modern APCs such as Patria AMV, Boxer and Piranha V offer enhanced protection, enabling safer infantry deployment in high-threat areas. Army-technology.com lists some of the best armoured personnel carriers operated today, based on protection and mobility.
Patria AMV
The Patria AMV (Armoured Modular Vehicle) is a modern 8×8 armoured wheeled vehicle manufactured by Finland-based Patria. The vehicle was introduced into the market in 2004 and about 1,400 vehicles have been ordered by the armed forces of Finland, Croatia, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden and UAE to date.
The Patria AMV, carries three crew and up to ten troops, protecting the crew from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and explosively formed penetrators (EFP). Its forward hull offers ballistic protection against Armour Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarding Sabot-Tracer (APFSDS-T) of up to 30mm. The vehicle can also withstand explosive mines of up to 10kg.
The Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) version of Patria AMV is fitted with Patria PML 127 OWS turret mounting a 12.7mm heavy machine gun. The vehicle has a maximum speed of over 100km/h and an operational range of 800km.
Boxer APC
The Boxer APC version is one of the world’s best armoured personnel carriers produced by ARTEC, a joint venture between Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Rheinmetall. Primarily operated by German Army, the Boxer APC can safely transport 11 occupants including three crew and eight infantrymen.
The vehicle is integrated with spaced and sloped armour solutions for protection against mines, IEDs and ballistic threats. It protects the crew from anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, bomblets and artillery shells, and offers all-round ballistic protection against arms up to 14.5mm at 30° elevation.
FLW 200 remote-controlled light weapon station aboard the vehicle is installed with a 12.7mm heavy machine gun or a 40mm automatic grenade launcher. The vehicle also supports IdZ (Infantryman of the future) technology developed by the German Army. The Boxer armoured personnel carrier has a top speed of 103km/h and a class-leading range of 1,050km.
Piranha V
The Piranha V is a latest member in the family of Piranha multi-role wheeled armoured vehicles manufactured by MOWAG (now known as General Dynamics European Land Systems-Mowag).
The Piranha V armoured personnel carrier accommodates 13 personnel in a well-protected armoured hull resisting the impact of mines, IEDs and EFP threats. The vehicle can be fitted with active protection system and add-on armour offering various levels of protection with over 95% coverage.
The carrier can be armed with modular weapon platforms ranging from remotely controlled light weapon stations to heavy turret/gun systems such as LANCE 30mm Modular Turret System. It integrates a MTU diesel engine and Fuel Efficient Drive train System (FEDS), which provide a maximum speed of 100km/h and range of 550km.
Pandur II 8×8
Pandur II 8×8 armoured personnel carrier is an improved version of the Pandur I 6×6 wheeled armoured vehicle produced by General Dynamics European Land Systems-Steyr. The vehicle is currently in service with the Czech Army and the Portuguese Armed Forces.
The Pandur II APC offers seating for 14 troops including crew and can be integrated with modular, scalable armoured solutions for protection against ballistic threats, mines, IEDs, and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs).
The SP30 turret atop the Pandur II is armed with a Mauser 30mm MK 30-2 cannon, while vehicles used by the Czech Army are equipped with RAFAEL RCWS-30 mounting ATK MK44 30mm cannon. Secondary armament includes a 7.62mm machine gun and 76mm smoke grenade launchers. The vehicle has a maximum speed of 105km/h and range of 700km.
ARMA 8×8 APC
The ARMA 8×8 modular wheeled armoured vehicle was unveiled by Turkey-based Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi at International Defence Industry Fair (IDF) 2013. The base ARMA vehicle serves as a modular platform for a variety of mission configurations.
The ARMA APC vehicle’s internal layout is designed to accommodate a driver, commander, and ten troops. The armoured hull offers high level of protection against Kinetic Energy (KE) penetrators, mines, RPGs, EFPs, and IEDs.
The APC version of ARMA is fitted with a remote weapons station with 7.62mm/12.7mm machine gun or open cupola with 20mm cannon or Mizrak-30 medium calibre remotely controlled turret mounting a 30mm gun. The 8.9L, six-cylinder diesel engine ensures a top speed of 105km/h and the vehicle can achieve a range of 700km.
AV8 8×8 APC
The AV8 armoured personnel carrier (APC) is manufactured by Deftech in collaboration with FNSS and was introduced in 2012. The vehicle was developed for the Malaysian Armed Forces, based on FNSS’ Pars 8×8 APC vehicles which are in service with the Turkish Army.
The vehicle has the capacity to carry 13 troops and is fitted with a composite aluminium and steel armour. It also has additional armour hinged to the front area as well as either side of the hull.
The AV8 vehicle is equipped with two-man Denel LTC30 turret with a 30mm GI-30 cannon and a FN Herstal MAG 58M coaxial 7.62mm machine gun. It is powered by a Deutz turbocharged diesel engine and can attain a maximum speed of 100km/h and cruise range of 700km.
Terrex 8×8 APC
The Terrex 8×8 armoured personnel carrier (APC) is manufactured by ST Kinetics and in service with the Singapore Armed Forces. The vehicle, offering greater mobility and enhanced survivability, carries 13 troops. It has a built-in central tyre inflation system that permits automated inflation and deflation of tyres for different terrains during movement.
The APC is equipped with active and passive armour suites and can be protected against IEDs and mines. It contains a twin-weapon remote control weapons system including a 40mm automatic grenade launcher and a 7.62mm general purpose machine gun, or a 0.5” HMG.
The vehicle runs on a six-cylinder, four-stroke Caterpillar C9 turbo diesel engine, which generates 450hp of power enabling the vehicle to attain a maximum speed of 105km/h and range of 600km.
BTR-4 8×8 APC
The BTR-4 is an 8×8 armoured personnel carrier (APC) manufactured by Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau of Ukraine. The vehicles are in service with the armies of Iraq and Ukraine transporting troops of mechanised infantry units and providing fire support in combat actions.
The BTR-4 APC was introduced in 2006 and production started in 2008. It can carry three crew and seven passengers, and can survive against automatic small-calibre guns. It can be operated in all climatic conditions during day and night.
The APC is fitted with a 30mm automatic gun and a 7.62mm machine gun, and also has a 30mm grenade launcher and anti-tank missile system. It runs on a 3TD diesel engine generating 500hp enabling a maximum speed of 110km/h and cruise range of 690km.
BTR-82A APC
The BTR-82A, an improved version of BTR-80 family of vehicles, is an 8×8 armoured personnel carrier (APC) being produced by Military Industrial Company of Russia for use by the armies of Russia and Kazakhstan.
Production of the BTR-82A APCs was commenced in September 2013 and the first vehicle is expected to be delivered to the Russian Army in 2015. The vehicle can carry three crew and seven passengers and offers more advanced protection compared to the BTR-80. Spall liners inside the BTR-82A armour protect crew against mines and IEDs.
The vehicle features reinforced floor with multi layers and is fitted with a 30mm 2A72 dual-feed cannon and a 7.62mm PKTM machine gun. It is powered by a 300hp KAMAZ 740.14-300 turbo diesel engine, and has a maximum road speed of 100km/h and maximum range of 600km.
Stryker ICV
The Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicles (ICV) are manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems and operated by the US Army. The ICV entered into service in 2002 and is produced in eight variants. It can carry two crew and nine passengers.
The hardened steel hull of the vehicle provides basic protection. The vehicle also features spall liners and can be fitted with a variety of survivability kits. In addition, it is equipped with a remote weapon station with 50 calibre or MK 19 smoke grenade launchers for protection from direct fire.
Powered by a Caterpillar JP-8 diesel engine rated at 350hp, the vehicle can accomplish a maximum speed of 96.5km/h and maximum range of .
And lots of these
http://www.wonderslist.com/10-best-attack-helicopters-in-the-world/
My little contribution is this: they should avoid the use of middle men. Direct dealings with governments and/or weapons manufacturers, ensure we don’t get derelict equipment. Due to the urgency of our needs, an open bid is not advisable for now. If we are going for used equipment, then useful/meaningful/combat worthy excess defense articles from the US, Germany and Ukraine. For me, I would do the following: 1). Assessing the needs of a single infantry soldier. What kit will he/she require to be effective in battle and have the maximum fire power a single soldier can carry: Right from the the kevlar (what they wear now seems a bit undersized), assault rifle with or without grenade launchers, # of mags per soldier, comm. equipment, nvg, water etc. Assessing the needs of a platoon or fighting unit: what kind of equipment would they need? etc etc. 2) take a deep look into our motorized units and mechanized infantry (Don’t know much about this one??) 3) Assessing the response/reaction time of the air force/quick response group, assess lifting capability of the airforce, Since we are integrating lift capability with attack by way of the Mi-17 and Mi24/35 series, then how many helics should we have? How many can be called upon at any point in time? What attack capabilities do our helics possess presently and what do we desire? What can the quick response group afford in their share of the $1b? . 4) Super Tucanos, we got this one right. But no one knows the actual number procured. How many do we have? What capabilities are on board? Do we need more? 5) BVR air combat capability, which aircraft can meet our requirements and how many can we afford now? 6) Navy: Talk to the US, seek to arm the 2 Hamilton class ships with AShM, ASW equipment; For the P18N arm likewise, build 4 more – 2 for each naval command. My 2 kobo for now.
I am still in a state of shock with events of the last few weeks, but I shall lay down my humble opinion hereafter.
oga xnur
welcome my feelings exactly it has taken a silence of almost 30 days before i responded.
well, a good development for the military, however dedicating a 200 million dollars for intelligence in the North East spreading down to border towns will in no small measure clamp on BH. It will put alot of pressure on the group since the highest bidder for hearts may win choice of actions. The new Min of Def now needs to perform. Consultations on the best equipment needed to persecute the war against insurgents as well as repositioning the armed forces for imm future engagements should be his guide. Oga Beeg I must thank you for responding timely, to some new activities in this blog, It has become a habit to see people who were power houses in the field of weaponry starts a media campaign against the state of Nigeria and its forces. Even those who choose to correct followed a bad approach. Please this is the No 1 blog in Nigeria in terms of security and I must add that it covers for West Africa as well. Pls sanctions as appropriate. Welldone
Intelligence is operational expenditure and money can be wasted on poor quality stuff..
Let us not do intelligence like Americans by throwing money at it hoping to buy quality. What we probably need is a civil anti BH force that can operate in the NE terrain gathering intelligence and doing sabotage against BH. A small department within SSS and NPF should be coordinating these groups who don’t even have to be inter connected.
Some political actors in the North are already complaining that the FG has started doing this in a very destructive way so this should be carefully done otherwise you destroy the entire region.
Starting from the standpoint of best value and greatest impact.
Lets do away with the antiquated AK47 and get some precision weaponry, 50,000 FN SCAR differing variants 16’s & 17’s, with agreement to produce under licence, as well as procure night & lazer sights and grenade launchers competitively. Unit wholesale price should be about $400 particularly because of volume orders. Total cost within $25millon, a small price to make huge differences in operational capacity.
Night sights as standard we should look at getting these produced under licence in Nigeria through partnership agreements with a number of different suppliers.
At this stage Nigerian soldier should not be in a any soft skinned vehicles, with the current goodwill from the USA we could pick up a few hundred surplus Humvees (armoured), Bradley IFV’s and Strykers, for almost nothing.Take advantage of our strategic position we can get a good number of used Mi 35’s from our I want to be your friends Russians.
The Germans have a huge stockpile of hardware never really seen action that we can negotiate for at really competitive pricing, you could probably get the esteemed Leopard 2 tank for under $1million and they are reliable as well as used Boxer apc’s.
Whatever we procure the more open and transparent we make the procurement process we can limit corruption and create best value by competitive tendering.
oga tim,
I respectfully disagree, a JF-17 is capable of close air support, reconnaissance,interception and strike.The Pakistanis require just a few million dollars (about 250) for us to join the development programme,(the initial programme between china and Pakistan was $100m shared 50/50). If this development cost involves producing these jets at home here and/or tech transfer we should splash the cash.
As for the Army, w.r.t. the current insurgency,they need their own air wing (they don’t have enough air assets to patrol large sparsely populated area),and for that they need the Z10 . If we can get to assemble them here even better.we already have the Apcs, IFvs, Nvgs,Body armour etc,for smashing boko haram. For future conflicts,Missile defence,both strategic and tactical has to be considered.For the Navy, despite my desire for many platforms, we have to focus the spare cash on more orders for the F-91 class frigate with military specs (AShM/Torps/SLAAM) and increasing local content,also the andoni class boats should be supported.
Intelligence networks and equipments have to be considered too.
SLAMM Ship launched anti-aircraft missiles
The WHOLE AMOUNT should go towards the purchase of millitary equipment that will greatly enhance our millitary’s capabliity to secure the SAFE RETURN OF OUR GIRLS and protection of our communites within the North Eastern Area of operation. THAT IS THE ONLY PRIORITY FOR NOW.
Thus we should be looking at the purchase of helicopters (light recce, medivac and armoured gun-ships and ), drones with surveillance and attack capabilities, IFVs and APCs for the millitary, equipment for our frontline troops (NVGs, Kevlar Armour, motars, Machine Guns, RPGs, and plenty of Ammunition to sustain a prolonged fire-fight, communcations equipment, medical supplies, equipment for protecting/fortifying FOBs , meals/rations etc).
For the Airforce- a revamp of the MB-Bo -15 airframes/purchase of surplus stock from the Germany, revamp of any of the C-130 awaiting an upgrade, Super Turcanos in reasonable quantities, guided precision munitions, communications equipment etc). Other than personnel from the SBS, the Navy for now is not really involved in this matter – and so the question of purchasing/revamping ships from this money should be left out for now.
The police (in particular MOPOL units) also have a role to play in guarding schools and villages – so that the army can concentrate on taking the fight to the BH ba*t**ds. Thus consideration should be given to the equipment the MOPOL units will need.
Finally our intelligence services really need to up their game – and so consideration should also be given to the pruchase of equipment to enhance the SIGNIT, ELINT and HUMINT capabilities of our intelligence services.
Make no mistake- if these girls are not found and brought back alive- we can NEVER AGAIN as a Nation hold our heads up with pride- no matter the size of our economy or how well it is doing – or the improved capabilites of our armed forces. THOSE GIRLS MUST BE FOUND AND BROUGHT BACK ALIVE.
Oga it will take months before any new kit is bought. And I can assure you the ransom that will be paid will not be up to $1bn.
So the focus should be on designing an army for our current and future security needs.
No ransom should be paid, the strategy is too easy to repeat.
Agreed.
The focus should be
1) The Chibok girls
2) The security of communities in the North East – If not, we will have Chibok 2, and Chibok 3
3) The destruction of Boko Haram
NA procurement list must make the SF own the nights: night vision, laser designators, Minimi/GPMGs as standard weapons, improved RPGs, improved communications system to call in the birds or support, hand held drones, high endurance motor bikes and fighting vehicles. The SF must have a dedicated Special Operations Air Arm: six Mi-26 for heavy lifts, six Mi-35 and ten scout/attack drones. The NA should target a total of two hundred IFVs and pimped up with 50 cal Ma Deuce/grenade launcher. NA’s Artillery holdens should be rejigged with new types up to 35% and these should come with precision targeting facilities. NA’s MBTs would have to wait for the next round of cash for upgrades or replacements (too costly for the limited sum).
The NAF: twelve units of the ALX Super Tucanos, twelve units of Su-25, six units of Su-30, thirty units of the Mi-35, six units of Mi-26 for heavy lifts, twenty four units of the decommissioned German MBB BO-105s for scouting and smart bombs. In addition, the talks between the NAF and Chinopako alliance regarding the JF17 Thunder should now be escalated.
Navy: four more units of the F91 platform – pimped with anti ship missiles and eight units of Harbin z9ec helicopter.
And, please, no middlemen interlopers. The transactions must be on country to country bases.
Thank you Sir,
The National Assembly should mount sentry over how the money is spent.
In any case everybody’s eyes are now open and laws are very retroactive.
We are not going to make billionaires out of the kidnapping and rape of little children in the NE. Nigerians have woken up and reject dishonest dealings in the defsec space no matter what it is called ”petty stealing” or ”corruption” .
They will not also wait for America to know before re-acting.
So like you said; only gov’t to govt sales with good credit terms negotiated from China, US, UK and Russia. Centralized procurement from the MOD. EFCC waiting on the wings with constant watch over personal assets of all parties involved.
Dude you are back with your Soviet style screening again, well its your property and obviously you have your agenda. We contributors makes your blog what it is. My contribution to your blog ends here.
@Oje
LOL…abi you don go abuse some big man’s mama again?, and you are complaining that your comments were screened off. This is probably for everybody’s protection.
Haven’t you heard of Nigeria’s Elbit Systems internet surveillance system. If Dem track you, carry you go SSS detention, throw you in with militants, you will come out worse than Shekau.
Honestly with this $1Billion I will leave out the Navy, I will concentrate on the Army don’t know what they need but mine resistant army personnel carrier at least 200 to be sent to the NE, the air force to be given at least 20 super Tucanos this will form the nucleus of our purchase.
EXACTLY! Maybe focus more on units like the SSS that being used up north to hunt down HVTs
Thank you my brother. The air force is the real capability multiplier for Nigeria.
You rule the land and sea from the air. The Alenia ATR 42 aircraft for instance is more vital to the National maritime interest than all the tame, short sighted (in terms of radar) OPVs that we have been buying. Also truly credible ASW capabilities only come from Naval aviation …not to talk of the powerful deterrence of arming an aircraft like the J20 with C802 missiles for instance. Even aircraft carriers will be wary.
So our NAF short term suggested requirements:
-Two squadrons of Super Tucanos(complete with American glide bombs and hellfire missiles)
-Six Su 33MK
-Six J20 (we can get these on credit, the Chinese will do anything for business in nigeria)
-Two Squadrons of JF17 (these should be contingent on participation in
-New Indian Air defence system (radars, control centers and at least 100 missiles).
– Hundreds of ground attack missiles, rockets, glide bombs, dumb bombs and gunship ammo.
My humble recommendation.
1) Get the medium – heavy lift transport helicopters (Mi-17s, Sea Knights, Super Pumas) equipped for night ops (NVGs, FLIR cameras, etc) and gunners for the QRF and Special Forces teams/units
2) Attack helicopters (Mi-24/35 Hinds) to escort transport helos and provide CAS
3) Super Tucanos and Su-24 frog foots for Combat Air Support. And please replace those 250 lb bombs with 500 lbs and 1000 lbs (send those BH scumbags to their 72 imaginary virgins with a big bang)
4) UAVs!!! UAVS!!! And more UAVS! !!! A few UCAVs will be nice also
5)NVGS and Comms systems for the soldiers in the field.
6) Re-equip the Police MOPOL and CTU squadrons and teams with heavy weapons (GPMGs, RPG-7) and training. And more police helicopters please.
7) Replace all those darn GPMGs on our Otokar Cobra APCs with 50 cal HMGs or Automatic Grenade Launchers.
8)MRAPS and APCs (Proforce vehicles much included). PLEASE NO MORE HILUXS OR FORD RANGER PICKUPS OOOOOH !!!!!
My input here may be bias due to the present challenge we have at hand,this is ,just for short term,hence,
for the NA–200 units IFVs,400 units MRPAs,150 units APCs
for NAF–24 units A-29 Tucanoes,24 units Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters,24 units Mi-17 medium-lift choppers, 12 units UCAVs,
for the NN–6 units ASUW choppers,
This has been in the pipeline for a whole now looking at govt body language (first the military inventory audit, then the movement of procurement to ministry) My hope is process is very transparent and lessons from previous procurement has been learned (looking at F7)
Since this sum is extra budget and does not affect the capital budgeted items for the 2014 budget.. I procurement is a reflection of our current threat which is insurgency and piracy.. MRAPs is a must it’s time we withdraw all the pickup trucks.. If we can get the Gila assembled here as a tire in to the government’s new auto policy that would be really nice.. We can also talk to the US government on acquiring some of those extra MRAPs if we ask nicely we might even get them for free and just pay for their transportation.. Whatever we go for we should ensure we include technology transfer so that at least maintenance can be done locally and at most assembly. We should also look into having a new standard rifle for our troops (although this would require time before we see them in the field due to training and integration with doctrine) whatever we go for we most include ability for local production in Dicon.. With the airforce.. Some of those dollars should be spent on refurbishment and activating grounded choppers and also upgrading existing choppers with Forward Looking Infra-Red and night ops capacities.. Since the budget already plans for 6 choppers I would suggest we mix that we multiple role jets like the j17 plus technology transfer. This would come in handy for hot pursuit into neighboring countries and striking terror camps outside our borders. For the Navy I would suggest activating our grounded fleets and have them fully functional and equipped with assaulted grade of anti ship missile, SAM.. We should also upgrade the Thunder and Co to frigates, and of cause Aradu.. More importantly we should expand our ship building capacity so that our goal of locally building platforms below 40 metre can be realized.. Ordering 2 more light frigate from the Chinese won’t be a bad idea.. The rest should be spent on training.. Despite having very good surveillance capability we seem to lack knowledge on how to put them to tactical use. I remember the last COAS talking about the fleet of UAV purchased by the army and how terrorist would soon have no where to hide. This was just January this year.. We need spend money on training so that every acquired asset can be put to good use.
Just to add to your post, a short term intervention of $1bn and clear increase in the annual defence budget is going to do a lot for the local economy sustainable. The local naval shipbuilding industry is just one. Equipment maintenance and revamp is another and then all manner of supporting businesses like machine shops, foundries, electronics, freighting and the like will also be enhanced when we acquire and have to maintain these equipment.
I see the beginnings of a nascent military industrial complex here and a budding defence services sector.
I am not sure you are referring to me, Oje. I have never deleted a comment by an approved member from this blog in 4 years. But if you want to be the rabble rouser, make obtuse allegations and say what you are not sure of, feel free to leave if that suits you. I don’t earn a dime here so if it goes burst this minute, I have nothing to lose.
Guys who are buddies of mine – Obix, Gbash, XNur44, Russell, Tope, Jimmy etc can tell you that the security system has shut them out inexplicably and of course, they contacted me privately and we worked on it. This system will shut you out for merely missing one letter of your email address. I cannot even see a pending comment from you, so what was that outburst all about?
I can confirm to have had comment caught in the system too. WordPress security features can be prone to false positives
Thanks. You are on WordPress and know what I mean.
I know I might sound callous and heartless, but after three weeks of apparent in action in the wake of ‘the kidnappings’, we might as well forget about the girls. They are a lost cause. They paid the ultimate sacrifice to make the FGN get their acts together. We should channel our focus in preventing a re-occurrence.
Just as some fellow Ogas have suggested, the money should be spent on intelligence (DSS & NIA), equipping the NA (mobility & light aviation), the Nigerian Police & NAF close air support.
If change remain, the NN should get some choppers for their new platforms.
I am sure the girls have not been killed so that is key. They are also modestly educated to senior secondary school level. I think these two facts leads to a comclusion that majority of them may be freed if efforts are intensified to find them and BH prisoners are traded. Some may have been married off and would have to achieve their freedom via self emancipation a little later (maybe in a few years). In any case about 5% of the total number of girls abducted will eventually become hard core terrorists themselves.
This is why we continue to make the case that being in government demands great sense of responsibility. Every action or inaction impacts the destiny of other human beings in multiplicity of ways and when you look at it deeply, nobody or institution is qualified by natural law to affect another’s destiny.
Let me just leave the matter before I begin to sound like an American Libertarian politician.
We can not forget about about 200+ girls like that o. Haba! Why should they be the sacrifice when the blame lies on those that failed to stem the tide at its lowest. Abi have we become to desensitised to so much carnage that we can just allow humans vanish into thin air?
The blame should be on the politicians politicking until the nth hour and failed to mobilise resources immediately.
Oga CDS just said on NTA “as we don’t know where the girls are we would be greatfull to get help from whosoever can help us find them”
lol..why is everyone turning their backs on the NN o? Wetin dem do una? Anyway, until I write my own sha.
Let the NN review upward the ten year plan, de-emphasize opvs and move to corvettes, frigates and destroyers (new and refurbished). If one take away the submarines, what is left is nothing but a tuna fish navy. No nation aspiring to have a fighting navy has ever built one around fisheries protection and oil spills.
oga beeg, my first request is for the army to change it’s camo to more specif colors and types. there are too many camos in the army and this has made it easy for rag tag militias to enter places where people probably thought : “hey, they don’t have one color anyway so it may still be the army”. honestly, they need to work on the camos so we can distinguish out army from rebels.
secondly, this is an opportunity to reactive the army air wing.
get some transport/attack helicopters for the army.
5 for every division in the north east and south south. (3 attack helos for rapid response to avoid inter agency confusions and rivalry with the air force, and the remaining 2 for troop insertion in impassable terrains)
so that makes:
5 each for borno, yobe, adamawa, kaduna (for any counter insurgency operations in the middle belt), port Harcourt and bayelsa.
which makes 30 transport/ attack helos for the army (fairly used o)
about 400 proforce LAV and 400 igirigi APC mounted with 50 cals plus extra IFV (russian or ukraine).
since these acquisitions are probably going to take months the army and proforce can quickly start production with a target of at least 20 each a month
for the airforce, Omo, work plenty there o. but since this is just an emergency acquisition, theirs no meed to rush a frontline fighter squadron.
we can just field like 20 tucanos with precision guided missiles(3 each as suggested for the army)
acquire like 10 -15 gulma and some ichoku for special forces
the 19 attack/transport helos already budgeted for will do for now if quickly acquired
all these with the basic COIN equipments for every troop in frontline e.g night vision goggle, a lot of RPGs, standard BPV, grenade launchers, modern communications system, hand grenade etc.
all these won’t even cost up to $1b if we involve our local industries.
my brother, with a mix of all these, boko haram will relocate sharp shatp. I kid you not.
we are fighting a group that has made AQIM and AQAP look like girls scouts.
I agree with everything except your suggestions for the air force.
The numbers are just not enough.
Historical NAF aircraft availability is less than 70% so you have to allow for that in your calculations .i.e if you want 24 planes available year round you have to procure more than 32 planes. This should be so until full local PDM capability is available for all aircraft and advanced maintenance technologies become available locally.
As you slowly improve your aircraft maintenance process you then begin to use better ratios. The American F22 and F35 are close to 90% reliability for instance.
Igirigi
I can understand the euphoria over these vehicles but it is my take that these vehicles will give better service to the NPF for now than the NA.
Looking at the design carefully, you can see the makings of a good urban crime fighting vehicle. At a stretch it could also be made marginally useful to the NA for the patrolling of NE cities and towns, chasing insurgents out of city limits and providing quick cover during fire fights. It is my view that the vehicle should not be used outside those operational boundaries.
Gulma
The driver for getting the Gulma UAV into full operation are training and availability of vehicularised RCS. Practice training under battle conditions is required to tidy up characteristics like aircraft control, radio links, radio link reliability, UAV range and so on Then a team should write a few operating and maintenance manuals and roll out training.
The mobile RCS is locally made but needs to be armour plated and made ready for operations in the field. Operational manuals are also required for UAV footage/picture information dissemination, information storage, RCS deployment methodology, mobile accommodation for crews, security for the mobile installations and so on.
I really feel that the Super Tucanos, six Mi-171Sh Terminator and six Mi-35M helos have been tied up in previous transactions, budgetary and extra-budgetary so we might as well leave all of those out of the reckoning
Le General, this your feelings get as e be. please lets know the way forward and i am sure when the time is right , you would shed more light. by the way whats the meaning of the NNS OKPABANA
I heard from one Kogi boy today that Okpabana means THUNDER.
Oga beeg, I beg to differ. The funds for the A-29 super tucanos come from this particular intervention fund. The MI-series helicopters were budgeted for, but the A-29’s weren’t.
The Airforce did also disclose that they would soon purchase additional surveillance Planes, however, I don’t know if the funds for the surveillance planes would come from this procurement fund.
Oga Henry, what if it came from Direct Intervention Funding as was the case with the 215 river gunboats and landing craft during the Gunboat War in the Niger Delta? Or govt-govt credit since part of the plan was to redress the trade imbalance between Brazil and us?
Remember the A-29 super tucanos has been on a card for a while now. Most like the deal was concluded beginning of the year or late last year. I really doubt it’s part of this particular extra budget procurement. When GEJ said the kidnap of the Chibok girls was a turning point for Boko Yeye I think he finally realized the need to go into all out against BH and raise the stakes. Before now government strategy has been that of containment but now the idea is to go all out.. GEJ hand was moved after the attention boko Yeye is getting completely over shadowing the world economic Summit.. He was shamed into pulling the trigger. This is why procurement was moved to MoD and why armed forces are carrying out inventory.
it depends on the quantity of tucanos acquired. (which I doubt will be up to 10) well, we’ll have to wait to confirm that.
I did state that the helos already planned for the airforce is enough so there’s no need for more with this kind of emergency acquisition.
I hope the government doesn’t lose focus in involving our local industries in this. which will boost our capacity and mark battle histories for our local hardwares.
this is what drives weapons sales in Israel. they test their weapons in real combat which draws attention from foreign militaries. we can follow this line and likely draw interest from our west African neighbors which will in turn keep production lines open and maybe some improvements along the line.
Now that the Fed Gov has stepped up to increase defense budget, this should become a permanent feature. We are in dangerous neighbourhood and cannot afford to pretend otherwise. BH is not going to go away anytime soon – even if we destroy them, the underlying factors are still there – the existence of abject poverty in the North and people willing to die for their beliefs.
The CIC needs to formally declare a state of war between Nigeria and BH and all its supporters. We need to mobilize the entire country for this existential fight because the outcome of this fight will determine if we will have a country or not.
Also, in addition to the $1 billion use I submitted above, I will write on the army weapons audit, I think we all should recommmend upgrade or retirement of current Nigerian army assets. I intend to use some of them in garrison with the uparmoured
Toyota 4×4, and have urgent solution to daily Boko Haram torment of our nation.
Well done everyone….Nigeria has many brilliant and patriotic sons, you guys are citizens Nigeria can be proud of.
I salute you my senior brothers.
Good dy brothers in arms pls oga beeg talked of DIA and ONSA which agencies are they?
DIA = Defence Intelligence Agency
ONSA = Office of National Security Adviser
My modest proposal NAF: 24 Mi-24 super hind – $ 84 mill,24 Mi-17v5-$84 mill ,15 wmd-7 recon & targeting pod + 100 LT-1 chinese LGB’s(for our alpha jets) -$ 15 mil,8 Su-27skm,part payment+ weapons – $ 120 mill, more Gulma UAV’s- $40 mill . NA: 250 Bmp-2(slat armour) – $ 50 mill, 255 Otokar cobra – $ 50 mill, 250 panhard erc90 afv(refurb) – $ 50 mill, 100 Btr-3 Ifv – $ 100 mill.
NN: 2 ex-Bremen class frigates+16 Gabriel ashm – $ 100 mill,1 makassar class Lpd – $ 50 mill,4 molniya class missile corvettes – $ 60 mill, $ 40 mill for helics. My price estimates may be off.
I have always been a background follower and trust me I enjoy every bit of what you guys say here well done Gen Beegz and all others…. Well concerning the $1bn released, personally I think the navy should be left out of the spending spree and the focus should be on the NA, NAF and mopol. 1) for the army, more apc @list200(let’s forget foreign ones for now and have a taste of locally built ones). 2)New rifles(Scar L with building lincense for the special forces with integrated grenade launchers, sights and laser designators for for precision targeting) upgraded AK 47s(scope, lasers and d rest) from dicon for the mopol. 3) special comm equipments for calling in airstrikes and commmunicating with the C and C. 4) night fighting equipments for both regular infantry men and special forces battalions(omo to so pe ki iya e ma suun, oun no ni suun….. it means a child that says his mother will not sleep will also not sleep) the army should carry out recon in the day and attacks @ night that way you deprive the enemy of sleep and you stress him out wich in turn dampens his morale. 5)refurbishment of all long range arty pieces for precision strike on stationary hvt. 6)field kitchen, field hospitals and the rest should be made readily available on all missions. 7)the NA special forces should start(if they haven’t) making use of mobile command and control centres. .For the AIRFORCE. 1) super tucano with all the precision weaponry it can carry(@ list two squadrons.brazil can loan us some for immediate use pending the arrival of our newly built ones). 2) 2 squadrons of jf17 thunder with complete tech transfer and joint ownership(for the main time) from our beloved pakistanis or even china. This would enable NAF perform surgical strikes on terrorist strongholds in neighbouring countries that have refused to have nigerian boots on her soil. 3)@ list 12 dedicated attack helos. We could ask from cash straped ukraine for her surplus havoc choppers with night fighting capabilities then anoda twelve unit of transport helos which would serve as the backbone of the NAs QRF. Now on the aspect of locating boko haram and the missing girls, why can’t the dss get drones or any surveilance asset that can pick up thermal signatures left behind by people then track them to where they are. And on nairaland this morning it was alleged that bokoharam blew up the bridge connecting nigeria and cameroon….. And also is not poSsible to clear @list 1km of forest in the immediate vicinity of border towns and villages( thereby creating a sort of plain flat land between the village and the forest) succesptible to attacks and then mount sentries with miniguns on security towers with Standing orders of going hot if they detect the slight presence of any aggresive armed group. This would also serve as a detterent to attacks on vulnerable citizens
Oga beeg, my fellow Generals have done justice to the assignment. I will add that about 100 million dollars should be st aside solely for intelligence trainings and upgrades. Intelligence is the backbone of this kind of warfare. With accurate intelligence, deployment of assets to the field will be seamless, battles easy to plan and targets achieved. Maybe we should try collaborating with the isrealis. They have a sound intelligent system deployed in small teams for effective coordination. Many people didnt mention the navy because the current conflict is centered around the north east but we shouldnt forget that our maritime assets need to be protected. The Airforce is a game changer anyday. But the truth is that a billion dollars is small to upgrade our airforce to standard. Money can be spent on assets with night fighting capabilities. I believe the Generals at the headquarters know exactly what they need. Our finest officers from the sierra leone and liberia era are the ones in charge from the rank of colonel above. IFVs are very important. Infact it should be the first to be brought so tha we can phase out the use of light skinned vehicles. The modernisationof our armed forces should be a continous one till we get to the standards required by us. To my fellow Generals, thank you for contributions. VICTORY IS FROM GOD ALONE!
I wonder why everyone keeps talking only about acquisition of equipments, several of which are old and have exhausted their best days by original owners. Should be we go ahead to spend $1bn on equipments that would not serve us for the next decade at least? Good we need to do acquisition, but should we go ahead to acquire equipments that are already obsolete? Why don’t we talk about setting aside a portion of this money for home grown development? Why not make more demands from the government to have a long term plan of $ 5-10 bn military spending for the next 5 years? Are we not tired of going to acquire equipment that are purposefully built to be inferior and problematic at twice the price from countries like France, UK and the US? Today India equips her military very well because they have learnt to partner with a country like Russia that has all the skills and techs needed and they have together funded and developed huge military projects that have yielded the dividends needed. We need to set aside funds for home grown defence industry to supply our own equipment and we need to start now. If we do, it’d be cheaper for us in future to equip our military and maintain our equipments because they’d be either home built or built in partnership with our allies.
I think it is late already, but never too late to develop development pact with countries like Russia, China and India to modernise our army with purpose built equipments which our military engineers will be part of from scratch. If we do this, we would catch up with countries like India and Pakistan and with the training our gallant soldiers have, we would be one of the best forces in the world and head and shoulders above our African brothers.
Boko haram attacks are revelations of how weak we are militarily at the moment and it is a shame that we’re asking foreign military to operate on our soil to help us deal with boko haram. It is a slap in the face of our military as it reveals our lack of preparedness in asymmetric warfare. It also shows how generally prepared we are if we have confrontations from our neighbours!
And if the government heeds the call, I hope our rotund oga at the top with stars on their shoulders would not divert the fund for personal use!
$1bn is not enough to pursue home grown development. It may temporarily buy us into a number of programs with China or Pakistan but spending part of this particular fund on this would be too distracting from the short term crises we have now.
The development of defence technologies has to be thought of strategically and funded in parallel with defence not as a part of it.
For how long are we going to continue to buy substandard, intentionally limited hardwares and stale technologies for double the price? Read a comment from a UK military man here
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/why-nigeria-has-not-defeated-boko-haram/178578/
Me I think setting $100M aside out of this money is a place to start from and turning to Russia to technology transfer and hardware would help us.
Secondly, I think the number of candidates going through NDA should increase and NA, NAF and NN should change requirement for recruitment. A minimum qualification should be OND. I have met members of our forces who can hardly read. The current situation demands more than knowing how to pull the trigger and roll in a ditch. Both modern and asymmetric warfare require people who can innovate, improvise and think outside the box.
I believe that as small as it may seem, if the army and the govt spend $200M on military tech development with collaboration with Russia and China, every year in a sustained manner for 5 years, what we would be able to do after that would take the world by surprise. The Russians have mastered the art of making low cost, lasting, high tech, reliable and top class innovations all their life and the chinese has been following in their foot steps, we should do the same.
Oga Ola, when it comes to tech transfer and development the Russians can not be trusted. They are not consistent. Any deal with them should be limited to purchase and maintenance. I would stick with China and Pakistan for anything more.
My elementary guide on $1 billion arms requisitions
Air and Anti-Air capabilities
Nigeria will need air and anti-air forces which have the capability to engage and negate enemy ground manoeuver units (including tanks, IFVs, field artillery, technicals, supply trucks, etc.) at night, in adverse weather conditions and in the presence of moderate and dynamic defences. Keep in mind the obvious fact that the tactical air activities must be closely linked to any ground war, therefore a major objective will be to improve the ground war environment by achieving and maintaining at least local air superiority, by providing airborne reconnaissance and close air support. NAF tactical aircraft will require:
(a) The ability to operate autonomously since continuous external control will not be feasible. Each must be equipped with weapons which take advantage of the target environment to provide the potential for many target kills per sortie.
(b) An effective look-down capability (all weather and night). NAF aircraft must have onboard radars capable of looking down through cloud cover and ground clutter.
(c) Track-while-scan capability. The aircraft radar and fire-control system must be capable of tracking one target while looking for others.
(d) Small, lightweight, short-to medium-range air-to-air missiles with an active radar seeker. A missile with a shoot-down capability must be carried on all NAF fighter aircrafts which can fire through cloud cover to home automatically on target.
(e) Onboard data processing and display system that must provide sufficient data processing so that a single pilot can absorb required information while he is engaged in attacking the enemy.
New Conventional munitions
The effectiveness of service munitions is related to their delivery system and technology has made damage capability relatively independent of the delivery system and range. Munition effectiveness thus becomes less a function of how they were delivered. Improved Conventional munitions (ICM) family of weapons developed for delivery by artillery, missiles or bombs present two important improvements; sub-munitions and controlled fragmentation against personnel and light-material targets.
Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence
Communications, Command, Control and intelligence are the sinews and nerves of military power. They are poorly understood, rarely appreciated, often blamed for military failures. It connects the decision-maker with their information sources as well as the forces that execute the orders and fight. Everyone knows that men, tanks, guns, ship and airplanes matter. These are counted, their numbers debated, their cost analyzed, but none of them can be effective without Command, Control, Communications and intelligence. Current and anticipated command and control sub-systems should enable the armed services have a hundred or more command headquarters at various echelons that are all linked to each other and to the units they control; many should be mobile.
The communications should use satellites, aircraft relays, point-to-point micro-waves and land lines (dedicated and commercial). The communications could be secure against exploitation and robust to jamming. The command, control, communications and intelligence could integrate surveillance systems and command systems, down to individual high precision weapons.
In terms of implications there is now recognition of the fact that full exploitation and integration of improved weapons will be possible only along with changes in tactics, force structure, strategy and on the basis of the requirements for a plausible range of contingencies.
This is where I would put money on to the benefit of the three armed services, as it can be seen $1 billion is a non starter. As for a shopping list, there is a plethora of choices available.
For immediate acquisition, I will propose several of each of:
NAF:
Mi-24
upgraded Mi-17
Su-27skm
Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter
UAV’s
Long term goal: Joint development of something similar to Su 35
We need to carry Amebo to the next level, let our NAF guys work with the Israelis to bring Amebo to the next level
NA:
Mil-26 (troop deployment)
Good battle platforms and troop movement. Mixtures of vehicles like:
Casspir
GILA
Mamba
We can get them all from SA. We should get rid of all our hillux, they are for civilian use, not again boko boys!
Gradual longer term acquisition of infantry fighting vehicles like
SK-105 Kürassier (Austria)
CV 90 (from Sweden)
ZBD 97 (China)
The Boxer (Germany)
We should service our Otokar cobras too
We need to co-develop MBTs and IFVs with Germany! Something in the class of or better than Leopard 2.
NN:
We need frigates and corvettes. I would recommend that the naval brass hats work on a decade strategic plan to co-develop our own ships. We can work with the Germans and Russians again on this and build our own class of frigates and corvettes. We can look at German F124 Sachsen class, K130 Braunschweig class and the Udaloy II class for inspiration.
We need helios like NH90 or similar. Plenty of them. For mission, not for carrying vips (tongue in check).
We can acquire decomissioned Delta III boats from Russia to develop our submarine capabilities and with time, develop or buy our subs own from them.
If all these would be done, the history of our military will be re-written for ever.
I humbly disagree with the idea of IFVs/APCs being offered as a solution to the CURRENT problem except, in the case they are to be used in defensive mode and in numbers to protect the vulnerable areas.
Boko harm have a max of 3 ( if working) APCs and have lost quite a number of technicals which suggest they are currently limited in fire-power.They have never defeated the army in an engagement and at the moment are decimated and have switched to banditry. Our problem is not engaging boko-haram but finding them,hence, air reconnaissance platforms and better intelligence is premium need.
That is why i advocate for a helic that can engage in air-reconnaissance,patrol and assault for an ARMY wing, lots of them,considering the massive search grid.Unfortunately, we are too young training wise and number wise for drones.we should add drones at our pace.
For the air-force we don’t have much money to spend,we cant afford dual use systems with the limited currency the FG is offering, so tucanos ,su25 and su27 together is a no no.The tucanoes stay because of their tactical ability, loitering time. Only one type of strike air-craft for strategic targeting.
I proffered the JF-17 IF( a big IF) we get access to the technology. I would like the SUs of course,but that can be got piecemeal for future engagements.
There is no direct need for the navy in the current engagement,but military politics dey o. Hence i suggested capacity development which to me means more orders of the armed versions of the type 056 class frigates to be built here with increasing local content.
My humble opinion.
drag_on says:
May 9, 2014 at 8:31 am
Boko haram have never defeated the army in an engagement and at the moment are decimated and have switched to banditry.
REPLY :
By dearly beloved brother, I doubted the desert camo Cobras Boko Haram displayed earlier because I don’t see them deployed in NE, I said they may be Algerian or Iraqi captured, or maybe Nigerian stolen through saboteur fifth columnist….until ….
I saw live on Tv news in North America (Nigerians are being blindfolded on real life videos of the battle field)…Boko Haram operating Nigerian army type of full green colour Cobra and VBL !!!!
Are they also stolen? You sure our army has not been defeated several times and we abandoned our APCs or our soldiers were all killed and their APCs captured?
I saw it live !!! I was shocked and sad. We need to increase our army’s firepower !
Get our men Y3 Automatic 2km range multiple Grenade launchers, plus 14.5mm guns and many smoke dispensers, all on vehicles and I want to see how many Bokos with dare to face that firepower !
Have you also heard of arms trafficking ?
Have you heard of boko haram propaganda videos ?
Do you think they would achieve such a victory as you describe and not record it for their propaganda ? Have you heard of common sense ?
Bloggers in this thread have come up some very good list of equipment/s needed for immediate acquisition. Though those cover whole gamut of scenarios but if I may add, I would suggest, gentlemen here should discuss the whether or not ‘Man Portable Ground Surveillance Radar’ will be helpful in the fight against BH.
For specification please look for MSTAR and other such radars.
Many firms make such radars, procurement shouldn’t be a problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-portable_radar
Thanks @Bharat, man portable ground/surface search/surveillance radars will help us a lot to detect approaching Boko Haram vehicles from a distance, and they cost about $150,000 each. Nigerian army can buy 1,000 of them for $150 million and have the every town/village garrison operate one.
Only issue may be power supply, but helicopters can land re-supplies at intervals maybe weekly.
Hand launched glider mini-drones could work too in emergency if their is report of incoming enemy approaching a village/town.
If we cannot operate all these, then only hope is the good old field binoculars high power plus night vision…$1,000 will buy a military grade piece.
Other generals, please lets talk on this man portable radars, can’t we mount them on Cobra’s and avoid ambush? I think every Nigerian army troop company or platoon should have one.
That’s a great idea from bharat
and Austin
I am sure the Americans are bringing these radars and surveillance equipment to bear in the search for the missing girls. At the end of the mission, we simply insist that they don’t take them back and chikena, we have acquired the radars.
Gentlemen, more dstressing news!!
BBC news (on-line and the 24 hour news channel) reports that accoring to reports received from Amnesty International (hmmmm) the Nigerian milliitary had FOUR HOURS prior notification of the attack on Chibok Town- but were reluctant to act upon same due to their fear of the BH insurgents superior firepower.
Secondly there is an article on the defence web blog (quoting Reuters) entitled ‘Boko Haram exploits Nigerian Millitary’s slow decline’. I URGE YOU ALL to read it as the article makes sober reading and is for the most part factual – especially in the light of the fact that our Defence high command has recently ordered an audit of equipment in the millitary’s inventory.
Thirdly the BH insurgents have blown up a bridge connecting the border town of Gamborou (??) to the rest of Nigeria- thus our citizens are now cut off from the rest of Nigeria and can now only escape further attacks by fleeing into cameroun. Why wasn’t this bridge protected? Does BH now possibly have isolated Nigerian territory which it controls?
All this INTERNATIONAL EMBARRASMENT because our Govt (past and present) has failed to take the issue of proper training, funding and equipping of our armed forces seriously and our military top brass has refused to speak ‘the truth to Power’ regarding the true state of our equipment inventory. NOW THE WHOLE WORLD IS BEGINING TO SEE THE TRUE PARLOUS STATE OF OUR ARMED FORCES. Cry our beloved country!!
I once came across an article 1 or 2 years ago that made mention of the weak fighting capability of our current army in PKO compared to the Ugandans and Rwandans. I didn’t want to bring it here. Well, there you have it. Embarrassing situation within our own borders and territory. What else is there to say?
The same Amnesty story is on CNN. Geuss who amnesty’s source is? Senator Ahmed Zannah of Borno state. I’m sure we all know this “gentleman” man’s antecedents. I’ll leave it at that…
Unfortunately Senator Zannah’s sources are often rank and file officers and men of the Nigerian Army. He apparently has had frequent meetings with the leadership of the 7 Div. NA and the army does not deny that.
One thing that saddened me most was his recent recollection in a Skype interview of an NA rating calling his phone to beg him to use his good offices to pressure the army to pay outstanding field allowances of combatant soldiers stationed in Borneo which was running into months and his promise to the said rating to bring the matter up in parliament.
Two things were particularly disturbing from the interview, one that a senator of the FRN would release that confidential info. on a Skype call with Sahara reporters, secondly that putting combatant soldiers under financial pressure in a booming economy was one of the most dangerous things that a force could do.
So when people come out to accuse some NA ratings of going rogue and doing mercenary work on behalf of the sponsors of Fulani herdsmen in another part of the country we find it hard to dismiss such reports with a wave of hand.
I am happy to see that Are James is indeed as clueless as I thought. Have you read what Zanna keeps saying ?
1) He claims the air force tried to bomb him
2) He claims his cousin was requested to teach about islam in a boko haram camp but tricked them by saying he needed to buy some food.
3) His nephew was a boko haram commander and was arrested some years ago.
Are James, you are embarrassing yourself by saying such fallacies. So now you want to claim Zanna holds regular meetings with men of the seventh division, the same he accused of failing an attempt to kill him ?
Are James, the more you talk, the more you reveal yourself as who you really are. And stop your fake sympathy for the force, we can all read straight through you.
My Ogas, Amnesty International again???I didn’t believe them when i read the story. As usual they quoted unnamed sources. Now oga Naijaseal has told us the source is in the person of Senator Ahmed Zannah of Borno state. Haba!
I will wait to hear what the military has to say before I make any comments about the Amnesty report with their alleged “sources”.
There are a lot of politically inspired stories out there and one has to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The PKO stories have been doing the rounds for a few years and funny that we continue to deploy peacekeeping troops to various countries, including Mobile Police Units, without any complaints and even have an accredited Peacekeeping Training School. Just saying.
I dont believe anything from amnesty internationals. Everyone keep quoting sources. Amnesty international was not on the battle field. Their story that the army was notifieed 4hours before the attack is baseless. There was an army unit in chibok. The commander of that unit was a captain who appeared before the first lady. The issue is here is whenever our troops in the line of fire call for reinforcements, how long does it take us to respond. There was a report that 15 soldiers present in chibok exchanged fire with the terrorists before they ran out of ammunition. The fact still remains that NA is keeping its battle info secret and that is why many of these reports are everywhere. I will disagree with anyone who says our officer corps are not well trained. Yes, the rank and file needs to be trained more and their are obvious lapses in their training and this is inherent in the recuitment policy. We have advocated for more literate people to join the ranks in our army. This will enebale them understand the basic military language and key into the modern trends in soldiering. An illiterate soldier who doesnt understand English wont be effectively trained since there will be obvious communication issues. The army is working towards that. Their recent adverts for recruits require a minimum of SSCE and OND. Though i will suggest that OND be made the minimum requirement. Those who have ssce will have no choice than to get an OND before applying. The main problem with the army is lack of modern equipments and intelligence that lacks the capacity to deliver. Many of our officer cadets are training in US, UK, GREEK, INDIAN and NEPAL. The quality is not in doubt bit the tools to achieve their objectives.
Nice one, my Colonel! I share your views %100 ! BTW, did you say our cadets are training in Nepal?
I hope so, I wish Nigerian army could train under Nepal’s army infantry, they are said to be the toughest foot soldiers in the world, and Eritrea is also said to have the toughest infantry in Africa. Both ratings by military experts around the globe.
When could someone help me ranky country? I think Nigerian infantry will be among the worlds top 15 by ranking.
Let it be known that amnesty international has been on the side of boko haram right from the beginning. At this very moment I am yet to see Amnesty international’s condemnation of the suicide bombings and the abduction. Instead Amnesty International comes with more allegations against the Nigerian Army. I hope you have all noticed that amnesty international acts like a viper which only comes out to bite what it sees as its prey and that would be the Nigerian Army in this case. It also seems that amnesty is trying to make it look like if its earlier criticism against the army was not boko haram friendly, indeed now that the whole world is concerned AI is trying to save its image. But people please spread the truth: AI has been working in support of boko haram right from the beginning and this is not the first time AI is caught helping terrorists. People of the world, do not give money to AI, if you do give them money than it will serve to feed terrorists.
gentlemen we are. devin into politics if and if the 4hrs responds is true does that constitute human right abuses ? many countries have had their own where of embarrassment let’s have ours and move on to reequip our armed forces ….
If we were to go with the hypothesis that AI is not terrorist friendly (which it is) then it would be hard to get its end game when we combine all its publications on this war against terror. The only clear message one gets from AI is that Nigerian Army is bad in every way possible. You will hardly find AI criticizing boko haram.
Bigoted micronationalist :-). He shall leave the Senate next year and become an activist. Mek dem find the strongest non-APC politician from dat zone and fund him maximally to dethrone this lousy fella.
Nigeria matter dey pain shey
Augustine says:
May 9, 2014 at 4:18 am
$1 billion, I assume does not include Super Tucanos costs, and upgrade of old NAF aircraft those were promised before this new crisis special fund.
If you want to buy NAF aircraft from this $1 billion, it will not make any noticeable impact.
To play safe, I will split it as 50% army, 25% air force, 25% navy.
Navy $250m
==========
1. $70m…Reactivate and upgrade NNS Aradu to a last another minimum of 15 years with brand new engines, second hand Otomat missiles and Aspide missiles, new Guided Torpedoes, and now add anti-torpedo decoys.
2. $40m… Modular removable launchers and their C-803 anti-ship missiles and TY-90 anti-aircraft missiles, chaff and flare dispensers and anti-torpedo decoys for the two P18N stealth OPVs coming from China.
3. $60m…units of 3 Harbin Z-9EC full ASW capacity fully armed anti-submarine warfare helicopters with all sea search radar, dipping sonar, torpedoes, and configured to launch C-803 anti-ship missile. They will operate from any ship on combat mission, even NNS Thunder becomes a powerful warship by carrying one of these helicopters in high threat zone.
4. $60m…3 units of long range helicopters for naval use, range must be minimum 1,200km with or without external fuel, we need a patient and careful search for such a naval helicopter. To serve as long range utility helicopter for quick response to an emergency 500km off our coastline deep offshore.
5. $40m…I leave chief of naval staff to help us use it for urgent naval needs we public don’t know about.
Air force $250m
============
1. $250m….6 units of Su-30 Flanker jets, second hand but with long useful service life still remaining on them and upgraded to Su-30 MK standards. Must add canards, vector thrust, minimum of 300km range radar, and armed with Beyond Visual Range missiles, Anti-ship missiles, and Laser/GPS Guided Bombs.
2. Super Tucanos have already been paid for before now, Brazil bought about $10 Billion worth of crude oil from us, so we should use part of that money for balance of trade adjustment and buy 24 units of Super Tucanos, 12 units single seat version, 12 units double seat versions. All units configured for combat. Urgent lease 6 units from Brazil now, and return them when we get our brand new Tucanos.
Army $500m
==========
I will focus only on urgent need to counter all Boko Haram open attacks and limit them to only suicide bombing.
Emphasis will be on defence of every town and village within zone of 150km from Nigerian border in Taraba, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe states.
I will limit myself to what we can buy and get delivered in one month before Boko kidnaps 1,000 more girls. I reduce imports to a limit because it can take 6 months to arrive, even if second hand, we still have to train men to use new weapons.
I will later this weekend write a war/fire-fight simulation between a squad of 12 Nigerian soldiers garrison defending a village from 50 Boko Haram fighters attacking, for us to see how these weapons can be used effectively on the battlefield.
1. $200m….signal illumination flares, smoke grenades (hand dispensed and rifle launched), modern medium range communication equipment (May be a Thuraya satellite phone), NIGHT VISION equipment, top quality body armour/bullet proof vests, high power day and night vision long range binoculars, 40mm under barrel grenade launcher attachment for AK-47 rifle, all these for each and every soldier.
2. $50m….1,000 units of DENEL Y-3 Automatic-Self Loading High Velocity Multiple Rounds Tripod Stand Grenade Launcher with electro-optical targeting and firing range of 2km with dual function as mortar artillery. I don’t know the market price, I estimated the cost.
3. $100m….2,000 units of up armoured Toyota Hilux 4×4 all terrain vehicles to carry Y-3 Automatic Grenade launchers, 12.7mm machine gun, 14.5mm heavy guns.
Quick contracts to up armour the Toyotas to protect users against small arms fire, explosive splinters and shrapnel.
IFV or APC imported will come late, we have no time to lose, if we face 1,000 girls kidnapped every month, the country will be badly hit if these mass kidnaps are not stopped very quickly.
4. $150m….100 units of a NATO standard Infantry Fighting Vehicle armed with 30mm cannon and other standard weapons, engine speed 70km/h minimum, able to carry 7 soldiers minimum, armour protection against small arms, grenades, and artillery shell splinters.
BTR-3U is cheap and ideal, but Ukraine faces war threat from Russia and may not want to sell to us quick second hand. BMP-3 is double the price of BTR-3U. Chinese IFV are easy to buy now second hand but not very good products. Let’s not waste money buying low quality.
$1.5m per IFV is a good choice for now, quick delivery is important.
The extra $500 million from CHINA EXIM bank, should go for Nigerian army air arm.
Whole $500m….
===========
15 units of excellent condition second hand Mi-35 Helicopter gunships with night warfare capabilities.
15 units of excellent condition second hand Mi-171 sh armed transport helicopters.
All must be upgraded and modernized helicopters with long useful life remaining as second hand value.
No buying of crap or near scrap helicopters, they wont last long after heavy use.
Acquire all hanger support facilities, maintenance and helicopter munitions/ordinance for rapid response team to fly to any trouble spot in North East at short notice, to arrive with troop reinforcement and cannon/rocket fire close air support within 20 minutes of distress call from ground troops or the police/public/government agencies.
This will eliminate delayed or failed response from NAF helicopters in critical emergencies and vital execution of operations. Let NAF have their current and ordered Helicopters plus their Tucano and Alpha jets for needed action, especially when the operation is not an emergency.
Long Live Nigeria, Amen !
Reply
CHYDE says:
May 9, 2014 at 10:52 am
@ Augustine your analysis makes a lot of sense, but permit me to say, the Navy can be ‘left’ out of this immediate acquisition, Why ?The Chinese EXIM bank can help out here over a period of time since the immediate threat isn’t form the sea.
REPLY :
Oga mi, Nigeria is very very dangerously weak, vulnerable and exposed to attack from the Atlantic ocean, that is the only place an enemy can attack Nigeria without passing through any other country.
That ocean is our major means of exporting crude oil and gas as well as importing refined petrol, diesel, and kerosene.It also contains a large portion of Nigeria’s oil and gas drilling fields .
That ocean is Nigeria’s most delicate area, our groin and our balls, one lone Submarine from an unexpected angry nation will squeeze those balls till they leak out all the life fluids in them, a lone Submarine will bring the whole of Nigeria down to our knees until further notice.
$250 million is worth spending to save 170 million Nigerians from torment coming from the sea.
Thanks.
carried my Gen & igbi
Oga Igbi, I fully support you 100% on this one.
Site, Nigeria needs to be careful now and think ahead of potential enemies. We are fighting Boko Haram and we are showing our sharp teeth to Islamic countries like Chad and Niger Republiqué warning them to cooperate against Boko, or else we shall send Nigerian army and air force into their countries to fight Boko in his bases there.
Boko has links with terror groups in other North African countries like Algeria and likely Egypt where fundamentalists have huge fan base.
There are over 60 submarines and guided missile warships owned by our fellow African countries today in their Navy, but we have zero in Nigeria today for defense today.
If Boko begins to get shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles from the insurgents who have been shooting down Egyptian military helicopters or Algeria, Morocco, then we show the same sharp teeth to them, then one angry north African Arab nation sends a submarine to teach Nigeria a big lesson……
It will dry up both the oil we are exporting by sea, and the petrol inside our Tiger generators, don’t even talk about cars….we go waka with leg tire….industries will close down.
How many disgrace Naija go collect in just one year? We no be giant again?
Book Haram is already using the Cobras for his propaganda by displaying them in a video played on Tv news over 1,000 times all over the world on global news stations.
I have watched it repeated on my Tv over every 30 minutes for many days non stop.
Common sense you say? Yes I have heard of it…
Common sense told me to research for many hours and find if any Cobra APC is sold to private users….answer is NO.
Common sense told me to doubt the desert camo Cobra as Nigerian because we have not seen it deployed against Boko, unless it was stolen.
Common sense told me Algeria has not reported loss of any of her police Cobras and their army has none.
Common sense told me to keep watching news updates as many hard to find videos of inside Boko Haram base and armoury was being played for public view on north American Tv stations.
Common sense told me to watch out for any full green color Cobra Nigerian army deployed against Boko.
I saw live, Boko Haram men operating Cobras and VBLs full green colour.
Common sense told me that now the Cobras joined with VBLs in all Nigeria army camo or basic colour types means they are 70% likely to be Nigerian army APCs.
Common sense told me they may be stolen or captured in battle or captured abandoned by fleeing Nigerian soldiers.
Common sense told be Nigerian army is not unbeatable and may have lost some battles or fire fights not reported to the public to a avoid embarrassment.
Common sense should tell you to leave me alone…
I guess that with your keyboard you are more efficient than any spy agency in the world.
You would know if any weapon was being trafficked or not since the answer must be on google. Ask yourself one question: what is worth filming for boko haram propaganda team ? If a victory of theirs against Nigerian soldiers is not worth filming for their propaganda then what is worth filming ? Look I know you are not a Nigerian or perhaps you are just the most bizarre Nigerian on earth. Your rhetoric looks a lot like that of one troll on nairaland who spent most of his time wishing evil on Nigeria and its citizens I think he called himself bcraig, I am 70% sure that that is you. The one thing I don’t like on this blog is that it allows people whose aim is antagonistic to Nigeria and its people to comment. You do not have Nigerian interest in mind, instead all you care is about destroying the image of the country and its armed forces. You did so with your “fifth column” comment in which you were trying to destroy unity among the force. You keep doing so and you keep mocking Nigeria. I just don’t know why you are allowed to go with your agenda on this blog.
Can someone check his IP ?
Let someone tell victor bout and his likes that a special someone on this blog can find them out just by using google.
Your presence here makes me wonder if any action would be taken if someone on this blog confessed that he were indeed a terrorist. I mean even a goat can understand that your comments are uplifting to the terrorists and distructive to the Nigerian army. Although I still don’t know your exact motivation. You have pretended to care about the troops but in your latest comments it is clear that you actually like ridiculing the troops. It seems to me that someone is not asking you the right questions.
This was destined to augustin (alias bcraig in nairaland).
Em,oga igbi,
hmm don’t mention Augustine and bcraig on the same line o !(o.k. i just did that).
ask oga rka, Augustine hates bcraig’s guts.I cant tell you how many times Augustine has sworn on the guy’s head.We had to control him. I think he is not happy with our hierarchy because he has received a lot of insults from bcraig and co. on Nairaland for defending them . Myself and oga rka are witnesses to that.
If you can read the 1300 pages here goodluck. http://www.nairaland.com/415620/strongest-military-africa/1300
I however think he is talking about that heavily edited propaganda video that deleted the part where the army recaptured the vehicles used to assault maiduguri.
dude, take it easy. you tend to get too personal with most of your conversations.
http://transformationwatch.com/2014/05/09/amnesty-international-lied-nigerian-army/
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL LIED – Nigerian Army
Posted by TransformationWatch ⋅ May 9, 2014 ⋅ Leave a comment
The allegation by Amnesty International that the military authority was informed of the impending attack but failed to nip it in the bud is very unfortunate and untrue. Much as the Nigerian military appreciates the global concern and show of solidarity with the country at this trying moments, falsehood should not be introduce as a means of assessing the situation. It has to be categorically stated that the claims by Amnesty International in its report that security forces had advance warning about the abduction of students of Government Secondary School Chibok, Borno State by terrorists is unfounded.
Contrary to the organisation’s claims, troops in Maiduguri did not receive four hours forewarning about the attacks. Rather, they received information of an ongoing attack on Chibok community from troops on patrol who on noting the attack engaged the terrorists and called for more reinforcement to contain them.
As the troops on reinforcement traversed the over 120km rugged and tortuous road from Maiduguri to Chibok, they ran into an ambush by terrorists who engaged them in fierce firefight and a number of soldiers lost their lives. Another set of soldiers also mobilized for the mission arrived after the terrorists had escaped due to a series of misleading information that slowed down the pursuit.
It must therefore be clearly stated that contrary to the claim by the Amnesty International, the information received by troops at the Division Headquarters in Maiduguri was not a forewarning but the call for reinforcement by troops on patrol. Considering the vastness of the mission area, deployment has been more of patrols than static.
The imputation of cowardice on the part of troops is particularly confounding as the military has internal mechanism to deal with such tendencies. These spurious allegations are obviously a continuation of the campaign intended to cause disaffection, portray the military in bad light and undermine the counter-terrorism efforts.
Although the Chibok incident is still subject to more investigation, the Defence Headquarters appeals to individuals and organisations to refrain from circulating spurious allegations that could undermine both the operation and investigation of conduct of the mission generally.
Major Gen Chris Olukolade – Military spokesperson.
That is why i humbly believe the military need helicopters not APCs/IFVs, look how long it will take them to get there on a rugged road,with an ambush awaiting? By air carrying re-reinforcements they would have been there in no time.
@Igbi
You always get me wrong. I have no sympathy for the NA, stop saying that I am faking something I don’t have. You obviously have me confused for someone who gives a damn.
The NA I fell in love with was decades ago and they were reasonably well equipped, disciplined, professional and the men were always paid their allowances on time..not this current NA. You can self immolate over that fact if you like.
That old glory will soon come back (through a very painfully process) and everybody will be alive to compare and see the difference. Meanwhile the maudlin sentimentality of some fake nationalists can continue for ever and it won’t change the painful reality that we have. “The truth that sets you free makes you very angry at first”.
The almighty US could not protect their Ambassador in Benghazi and the poor guy and his bodyguards were attacked three different times by waves of increasingly dangerous terrorists over a period of time that US assets (CIA/Marines/SFs) could have been deployed to defeat them but nothing was done. Do you see Americans trying to bury this fact?.. do you see them heaping praises on the on people along the chain of command because of ‘patriotism’?. Capital No.
Indeed Hilary Clinton may have to pay a high price for Benghazi in the next elections.
Patriotism demands collective self criticism sometimes. Now we are calling for help from the Western world who may have their own designs for our collective future. Is that a good thing?.
Just wait and see, let the British be the first to sight and take out the first group of insurgent kidnappers and free some of the girls… you no go fit drink water again be that. They will ridicule you so much, you will feel like bleaching your skin and doing jerry curls.
We are here discussing how to make our country’s military great and you expect me to be a cheerleader for failure.I do not give a damn about the Senator..but the NA and MOD have never denied making contact with him. If allegations he made are being reinforced by events on ground, international media reports and corroborated by locals then going into denial is not going to help issues.
I guess you don’t buy into western media blind coverage about Nigeria. Or perhaps you think that quoting AI is prove that AI’s claims are true. In the first case I recall the western media declaring that a base in Bama was taken over by boko haram. While prove was provided in images that the terrorists were decimated at the gates. And now, I recall you claimed that Zanna had regular meetings with men of the 7th division, are you shying away from that claim ? This is one thing I find typical with your comments: “guess work at best”. Now you can try and blame me for being patriotic because I guess that is a crime, indeed isn’t it natural that each and every Nigerian should hate Nigeria with passion ?
What you don’t understand is that what my patriotism dictates me is to search for the truth and not do some lazy guess work like what you keep doing. And who exactly are the “people on the ground” you are talking about. You talk but there is no sense in what you say.
Here is the quote in which you pretend to have sympathy for the troops: “One thing that saddened me most was his recent recollection in a Skype interview of an NA rating calling his phone to beg him to use his good offices to pressure the army to pay outstanding field allowances of combatant soldiers stationed in Borneo which was running into months and his promise to the said rating to bring the matter up in parliament.”. You are a funny man and a contradictory person. The most ludicrous is that you actually think you are bringing something. You should know that you actually have to do some work to bring something. Your hate for the Nigerian armed forces alone doesn’t constitute intellectual material. I am not asking you to praise the Nigerian armed forces, instead if you could just do some research instead of exhibiting your hate, then you would actually be bringing something. Until then you will remain a clueless hater.
Come off it my friend !!!.
Did you even read this piece?. The NA just did itself a great disservice by responding to AI this way. This is all the confirmation the world needs to ridicule us further.
I am surprised you have not read between the lines of this statement to discern theserious institutional failure they are admitting here. Anyway some people will always think with the heart so it is understandable.
I’m sure by the time we take into consideration all listed here, of which most are needed. It’ll be in excess of $5-10 billion to get our military to the level we ought to be.
Good contributions everybody,for me i will suggest(1) SSS,NIA,DSS:15 modern medium handheld survellance nd attack uavs or gulma,spy gadgets nd tracking devices,communication devices nd special assault guns wit rpgs.nd 3 choppers.(2)police-mopol:rpgs,comm,tracking devices nd modern swat-type assault rifles.50 naija made igirigi apcs nd 10 mobile or stationary forensic labs.(3)NA:150 mixtures of igirigi nd 2nd new foriegn apcs,nite vision,infrared&laser gadgets nd markers,change d NA standard rifle to(american rifle)or build modern ak47 under licence or build our own,rpgs,100 T90 tanks,comm&tracking gadgets(both mobile,stationary and hand held) with better overall kits.10 each of attach and medium lift helos(3)NAF:6 su-27,30 or mig 29.for surgical strike on BH nd power projection outside our border(guess we have paid for tucanos already).25 sams(isreali,ukrane,russian or indian made)for national air territorial defence,6 for attack&3 each for medium nd heavy transport helos.communication gadgets nd radars.(4)NN:1 corvette,1 fridget with 40% local imput nd tech transfer with all modern missiles,cannons nd systems,comm devices nd radar 180km at least.3 each of asw nd medium transport helos.(NIS)modern border posts,upkitted nd mobile patrol teams with assault,comm nd tracking abilities…….now plan in next 3yrs with 6billon dollars to modernize our defsec:1 destroyer,2 fridgets,6 corvettes,6 opvs,3 submarines,2 deminer,1 oceanograpic ship,10 asw helos nd 8 each of medium nd heavy lift helos,radar of 300-400km nd jammers,60 land to water sams nd missiles batteries of 250km-450km.(2)NAF:2 sqd of tucano,4 sqn of jf17 built btw nigeria/pakistan,1 sqd of su 30,1 sqd of su 27,mig 29 or f15 or f16(us or japan,1 sqd of mirrage 200c,1 sqd of alpha or albators jets,1nd1/2 training sqd of both jet,transport nd helos,1 sqd each of small,medium&medium aircrafts,1 sqd survellance,3 air refuelling planes,4 sqd of attach helos,2 each of medium nd heavy transport helos,130 sam units nd batteries,total west africa territorial military radar cover nd comm gadgets nd jammers,1 or 2 unit of israeli medium/high altitude attack nd survellance uavs,20 naija ichoku uavs.(2)NA:200 T90 tanks,200 liopard tanks,200 russian or chinese tanks,100 us tanks,100 naija tanks made inconjuction with ukrane,300 igirigi apcs,500 ukrane,finland,german or turkish apcs mixed together,300 heavy skinned proforce nd innoson patrol trucks.rpgs,naija made standard rifles with kits,night,termal nd high level binoculars,100 modern roland land to land&air sams,hand held radars nd comm gadgets,jammers,decoders,anti-chemical,biological,nuclear protective devices nd monitoring gadgets.full field nd emergency medical capabilities,15 each of choppers nd hinds,15 medum nd 10 heavy transport helos.(4)Mopol&police:first should be purged partial or total like it was done in georgia nd rebranded and redoctrinated with professionalism.1000 patrol cars,200 patrol pickups,300 apcs mixed with igirigi nd foreign,rpgs,300 trucks,jammers,trackers nd comm devices,40 stationary nd 10 mobile forensic labs,modern pistols nd rifles with necessary kits,riot control gadgets,anti-terorrism gadgets,emergency nd epidermic control capabilities,increased investigative abilities,10 choppers.(5)sss,dss,nIa:2 choppers each,trackers nd comm gadgets,night,thermal nd laser gadgets,heavy assault rifles,5 forensic labs each,work shops nd labs,gulma survellance uavs nd lots of other abilities.(6)NIS,prisons nd other: all prisons should renovated with 40 medium prisons nd 5 maximum prisons all well guarded with cannons nd machine guns nd even small air defence systems,reconfigured border posts with teams of NIS border patrols armed with pickup truck nd submachine guns nd well kitted.a guard group should be created out ofcivil defence for VIP protection.nd others as well fire service 1 plane for fire emergence nd other equipments as well as road safety.finally govt should build a new military satellite that will be used by the nigerian defesec nd also get 1 oceangraphic ship,a plane nd 2 choppers for d universities nd research commuinty for projects in nigeria to propel them into massive nation building…..tanx.
Interesting read.
(WASHINGTON) — The Government of Nigeria last fall hired a powerful Washington lobbying firm to press its case for intelligence on violent terror group Boko Haram and to persuade the Obama administration to donate non-lethal equipment in the hunt for extremists, according to documents filed with the U.S. government…….
….Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks Monday echoed those who’ve said that the African nation’s fierce pride also led it to shoo away offers of American and British counter-terrorism assistance, even after a United Nations office in Abuja was bombed three years ago….
….However, two months before Boko Haram was designated an FTO by the U.S. in November 2013, Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Adviser signed a $3 million-a-year contract with K Street firm Patton Boggs to “provide comprehensive security advice, including the donation of excess military and law enforcement equipment,” according to documents filed with the U.S. Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act….
…On behalf of Nigerian National Security Adviser Muhammadu Sambo Dasuki, Garrett requested information on Boko Haram activities derived from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance overflights of northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state. Patton Boggs also asked for non-lethal protective hardware to be donated to Nigeria such as mine-resistant armored personnel vehicles, night vision goggles and communications equipment from Iraq and Afghanistan stockpiles left over from U.S. withdrawals from those warzones…..
..Then, on April 28 Garrett wrote to a military attaché at the U.S. embassy in Nigeria to seek a meeting with Ambassador James Entwistle.
…The Nigerian wish-list again included “protected ground mobility for security forces” and “current imagery, surveillance, reconnaissance (day/night) product and analysis, initially for the Sambisa Forest Region, Borno State, and for other designated areas of interest,” as well as the communications and individual night vision equipment, according to Garrett’s email to Army Major John Ringquist at the U.S. embassy.
But Garrett said Friday that no meetings have been scheduled with U.S. diplomats and claims little if any intelligence has been shared by the U.S., much less any surplus military gear.
“To date I have not received a decisive response to our requests, but we continue to work on these vital requirements for the office of the national security adviser of the government of Nigeria,” Garrett told ABC News….
….”Unlike many African nations that are confronting challenging security threats, Nigeria does not lack funding for its security budget. And as we have said, it is Nigeria’s responsibility, first and foremost, to provide for the safety and security of its citizens,” the official added…..
http://abcnewsradioonline.com/world-news/nigeria-requested-us-intel-and-military-gear-to-fight-terror.html?#ixzz31GhdnAwG
“Unlike many African nations that are confronting challenging security threats, Nigeria does not lack funding for its security budget. And as we have said, it is Nigeria’s responsibility, first and foremost, to provide for the safety and security of its citizens,” the official added…..
This was the response of the U.S. state department official when asked.
We were asking for equipment donations from the US after spending so much money on defsec?. I assume that was the second main point of the article.
Estimated actual defence and security expenditure since late 2012 is an unconfirmed £3.5bn (yes, pounds sterling). They are more or less asking, where did all the money go?
We are going to have to endure more articles like this now that we have asked for international help to find the girls. We have opened ourselves up to the world and many things are going to crawl out of the woodwork in terms of expenditure.
Many people do not regard Nigeria a poor country.
Why would £3.5bn for three years be considered “so much”?
DO the math:
£3.5bn divided by 3 = £1.17bn
Not sure if your “defence and security” includes police, but lets assume it does not.
So divide by three again for each of the armed forces:
£1.17bn divided by 3 = £0.39bn
£0.39bn. That is just the price of two Euro fighters, maybe three.
Nigeria is corrupt.
Nigeria has a bad name.
But let us be actual.
Late 2012. This was actually one year’s expenditure, I will send the link to the article and the date it was written. I wonder how it compares with Uganda, Kenya and Eritrea however.
@Are James,true talk!
@Igbi
Thank you for the interesting forensics on what I posted here and your escalatory analyses derived from them. I have a few questions for you just to show that you are a neophyte as regards the fundamental issues we are discussing here and where some of us are coming from.
1. How many Nigerian Army day celebrations have you self attended as a young teenager in your life?… I am talking early 70s.
2. How many Soja Magazines have you bought as a kid with your last pocket money? …and that was when they were still in print, I assume you are old enough to have seen at least a few print editions of them.
3. How many times have you branched on your way home from school as a young boy to admire NAEME grunts repairing tanks and armoured cars on empty stomach and patriotic fire in your heart.?
4. Can you relate the exploits of the NAF and NA in the Southern African theatre in the 70s?.
I am not even going into the local Liberia and S. Leone wars because the rot had already started then.
5. Have you as a young boy in secondary school stolen away from home countless times just to watch infantry live fire demonstrations ..countless times.
6. How many NAF ace pilots have you deliberately cultivated their friendship and listened to heroic top gun flying from?
Please don’t lecture me about the Armed forces and my love or no love for them.
You are too young to know where we are coming from as a nation and how far we have sunk.
Furthermore, as the bashing continues, here we go:
“Even if we jumped in with a gold-plated counterterrorism response in Nigeria, there’s no guarantee we’ll be successful in finding and rescuing those schoolgirls given all the obstacles, which include a seemingly disengaged Nigerian president, an incompetent Nigerian military, and a terrorist organization operating in very remote and difficult terrain,” said a former senior U.S. military officer with deep experience in Africa. “Remember, our own special operations forces, working with much more competent host-nation forces in Uganda, have been chasing Joseph Kony for years without success.”
from Yahoo news, May 8, 2014
Ok so Uganda is now much more competent. That is rich.
igbi says:
May 9, 2014 at 9:30 pm
I guess that with your keyboard you are more efficient than any spy agency in the world.
You would know if any weapon was being trafficked or not since the answer must be on google. Ask yourself one question: what is worth filming for boko haram propaganda team ? If a victory of theirs against Nigerian soldiers is not worth filming for their propaganda then what is worth filming ? Look I know you are not a Nigerian or perhaps you are just the most bizarre Nigerian on earth. Your rhetoric looks a lot like that of one troll on nairaland who spent most of his time wishing evil on Nigeria and its citizens I think he called himself bcraig, I am 70% sure that that is you. The one thing I don’t like on this blog is that it allows people whose aim is antagonistic to Nigeria and its people to comment. You do not have Nigerian interest in mind, instead all you care is about destroying the image of the country and its armed forces. You did so with your “fifth column” comment in which you were trying to destroy unity among the force. You keep doing so and you keep mocking Nigeria. I just don’t know why you are allowed to go with your agenda on this blog.
Can someone check his IP ?
REPLY :
I was thoroughly screened before I was allowed to join this blog, I waited for many months to get approval to blog membership.
I am Yoruba with strong Hausa/Fulani family mix.
Se wahala tire ni iwo ro wipe mo bawa si beegeagle blog ni? Maa so enu si Iyana Ipaja tabi Ojuelegba, Oje lo joko si ibikan ko ronu bi Nigeria se maa bori awon ota ni ile arewa.
Ba zan yi magana da yawa ba, bani da lokaci. kada ka dame ni.
Nigerian army did court martial an officer for aiding Boko Haram…that is a fifth columnist, I won’t repeat that army publication for you here again.
I am not among those who deceive Nigerians that our government or our army is doing well in a situation where it is doing wrong, the army guys are not angels or gods, they will err and we will correct them because we put them there, this is democracy and the army is under civilian authority and is accountable to us when we question them.
No army is almighty that cannot lose a battle, most important thing is to win the war, battles are just small pieces that make up a whole war. Tiny Eritrea defeated mighty Ethiopia in the opening battles of Badme in year 1998-2000, but Ethiopia came back to win the whole war at the end.
Your hull sonar is picking up signals from a sea creature and not an enemy submarine, you need to adjust your sonar frequency again or your will waste your torpedoes on a shark or whale.
Have you ever seen an enemy that asked the other opponent to deploy 1,000 garrisons in 1,000 places against his own infantry men and arm the garrisons with 1,000 automatic multiple grenade launchers?
I will only maintain in national interest, and in respect for the leadership of this blog and people like @drag_on who spoke above. I have a mission here, I don’t need your approval to carry it out.
^^^
Man mi, please ignore that skunk.
Oga Deway, Uganda much more competent than Nigeria? No wonder the US have been chasing Joseph Kony for ages and Al Shabab can set off a bomb in a viewing centre. *mtscheeeew*.
When we asked Western Intelligence for assistance, they “dilly-dallied” and towed the line of the Northern Elites that BH was as result of prevalent poverty in the North, instead of what it is, a bunch of Brigands. As if poverty didn’t exist in other parts of the country, and citizens there weren’t hustling daily to improve their lot.
Now that those girls have been lost every Tom, Dick & Harry is already castigating Nigeria, for being to proud to accept assistance.
I don’t blame them, if the FGN and politicians have fund Security and Intelligence Agencies and the NA had a proper PR department we, wouldn’t had this fiasco.
From of the information , emotional actions, reactions and kneel jerking the truth takes a beaten but if you look with unveiled eyes you will see the fragments of truths that can be pieced together to have a general idea. Here are some of the facts that has been established in the current stream of events and based on what has been said by the military and reports from international/local press and non governmental organizations.
*Military is having issues with soldiers payment* Mj Gen Okukolade admitted this in an interview he gave here http://icirnigeria.org/nobody-is-stealing-soldiers-allowance-defence-spokesman-major-general-chris-olukolade/ so at least it has been established (would recommend every one read that interview piece) So at the very least soldiers allowances are not being paid in full due to cash flow.
*There is lack of trust between local community and troops*
This was established in this report here http://n-katalyst.com/2014/05/10/report-on-meeting-with-military-high-command-7th-may-2014/ it is a well balanced report of a meeting with Military High Command and leaders of the bringbackourgirls protest.
*ETA for reinforcements is hampered by logistics and bad roads* We can establish this from the link Oga igbi posted where reinforcements to Chibok was delayed due to bad roads and exposure to Armbush
*Chibok raid was held off for over an hour* although not expressly confirmed by the military various sources and account of the Chibok raid stated the Boko yeye were held off (technicals and all) by 10 soldiers for 90 minutes (this was when reinforcements was called for) unfortunately soldiers ran out of Ammo and had to resort to self preservation mode.
*PR disaster for government & military* The fact that the president was silent on this issue for over 14 days after the event. And the lack of information from the military other than the usual “everything is being done to recover the girls” lead to frustration and anger furthering mistrust of government and the military.
What I highlighted above are fragments that I established from all the noise paying around. This are issues we have discussed here before.. The need for better welfare, need for choppers and MRAPs need for the army to up its PR game.. And the incident in Chibok has shown that our boys do not lack training or discipline which lays credence to what has been suggested here on how 15 troops can be positioned in each villages armed with heavy artillery, MRAPs and HMG can hold off a BH attack before reinforcements can be called in (from choppers)
I don’t know what else to say. I know that emotions are high and we all are patriots in our own way. But we should try and let go of our emotions.. We know authorities look to us for guidance on how to proceed hence we can not continue to mudsling each other.
My take from all this is the same as we have been saying. The need for better welfare for our troops. It can not be over stressed how much welfare contributes to moral. Also MHQ should work out a schedule for troop rotation and leave to allow troops visit family and loved ones.. Payment should be promptly paid and not be allowed to be bogged down by bureaucracy.
On trust. You can not fight coin without building trust with local community, in fact that is the hardest part of coin because many of this locals have their sons and family members in BH and some benefits from BH directly or indirectly. But this is a task that has to be done. Thankfully most of the communities have village head.. Meeting with such heads with humility and sincerity will go a long way. Army group of engineers also play a role. It amazing how simple things like digging wells, setting up clinics (even if one of the proposed 15 soldiers guarding a village is a medical practitioners) if not then random visits by medical people will help.. Gestures like this goes a long way to build trust and help save lives for our boys in the long run.. Like I said it won’t be easy but it most be done.
On the issue of ETA we all know the solution.. A dedicated group of the airforce quick reaction force in conjunction with SBS and the Nigerian army commando and some regular infantry should form the first responder team in case of SOS from any FOB or village.. The special forces attached to helicopters could respond first while regular infantry in a convoy of MRAPS move to trouble spot.. In any case. We need more choppers and MRAPs. It’s high time to withdraw all the Hilux.
On the issue of PR. It’s high time the government and military review PR strategy.. Gen Chris Olukolade said something that struck me. He noted how BH was using PR as a psychological attack against the military and it’s working. The only way to defeat them is to have a better PR. We need to let out operational videos.. Air strike videos.. Videos of NA working with local communities.. We need to release information with facts and figures especially when it come to army successes people need to see their army in action.. A situation like Chibok where it took 14 days before president responded is unacceptable and should not be repeated. President is the father of the nation and should be seen to be on top of things.
Gentleman this is my own small contribution to the on going situation. Long live Nigeria.
Oga Beeg, seems my comments are stuck in the system. Could u help me review and approve. It probably got stuck due to it being a lengthy post.
Resolved
Dispassionate and statesmanlike.
Marshal Beegs I humbly request for a redirect or reboot before we are completely derailed…. thank U sir
Oga beeg, there is news that the girls have been found in sambisa forest by a combined team of us marines and nigerian sf!! Sounds to good to be true.. Please, can you confirm? I got the news from vanguard.
Gentlemen, the thread needs to return to its designated theme. It has all but derailed.
Secondly, please lay off personal attacks and accept that there is only one moderator here. Speak and allow others to speak. You might think you are on the right track until nominations for evictees are taken and you find that the house want YOU out. Sure you don’t want to be alone elsewhere on some forum all by yourself.
Show COMPORTMENT and be less intolerant of opposing views. We are not praise singers so there have to be naysayers sometimes. I am trying my best to maintain the sense of balance which suffices here.
When this blog began to boom and our numbers increased to a point where editorial direction was going to become a major headache, I began to screen potential members so as to have an idea of their personality makeup because I do not delete content and do not want this place turned into a madhouse either. It has worked well as you can see. Most are very knowledgeable, detribalised, fully globalized in the breadth of their understanding and are mature. Events of the past few days have shown that some of us can be implacably critical but I never wanted a blog where all think exactly the same way on every issue either. This bad gust of wind shall yet blow away. Remain calm.
However, let us try to be balanced. That is why, much as I dislike BH, when they attack I report same and when our troops get killed, I tell it. You should be alarmed if I pretended as though it were not happening. So maintaining a sense of BALANCE is key to what we seek to do here. Criticise but don’t embellish to overstate the reason behind the outrage which you feel. Let reason…not emotions prevail.
the army cannot post 10-15 men to every village. its impossible. moreover, that’s not the job of the army.
the moment they start forming static lines and intermingling with civilians, they will immediately develop bad habits. with that, all the terrs have to do is infiltrate these villages (or use sympathizers) and monitor the routines of these sentries. man is a creature of habit. coupled with too much familiarity with civilians, the terrs could easily overrun these sentry post before any reinforcement arrive. it would weaken the main purpose of having the men posted there in the first place.
civil defence corp, the police, and village vigilante are the best for this village defence program.
the army is an offensive unit. they take the war to the terrorists. even when carrying out defensive manoeuvres, its all towards striking a lethal blow at the oppo forces.
yes there should be more army presence in the affected zones, and not just sending out patrols from MDGR, Bama and other cantonment towns. however, only FOBs are needed deep within contested grounds. these FOBs are to be set up purely according to tactical calculations and not about village perimeter defence. the terrain and geographic location should decide where the bases are sited.
again, every FOB should be a self sustaining unit. with enough resources to send out men on patrol, keep the base defended, and dominate their immediate surroundings all simultaneously.
it would mean having dirt strips for light aircraft use, helicopter landing zone (HAG area), field howitzers; to support patrols, defend the base and generally harass and interdict the terrs. these bases should always send out aggressive patrols. always keeping the insurgents unbalanced. successful fighting patrols means these miscreants would never be able to congregate in full strength to overrun any FOB. any form-up points can be immediately located by reconnaissance units, and immense fire support brought to bear on these assembly and reinforcement lines
I see a lot of work coming to Army engineers in the coming years.
I shall still come back with my shopping list. Let us get back to the issue at hand. Who remain wey neva drop im list? The QUESTION is HOW SHOULD THIS MONEY BE SPENT?
@Bharat. That was a great input of a crucial item needed to boost survivability and base security. Thank you.
My Take:
I see this money as a quick stop gap measure therefore i would restrict it to the 2 military arms that are currently engaged in this war in the NE ie Army and Air-force
Army
1) Attack/Transport Helo’s and MRAP’s/IFV’s:There should be a balance between Air Assets and MRAP/IFV. Why? We need Air assets for immediate deployment and counter attack especially when BH attack in Large convoys. We also need the MRAPS/IFV’s for constant patrols of the theatre so as to show force and build back confidence of the citizens in that area. Also these motorised assets should be armed with heavy guns (HMG’s and Grenade launchers) i.e they should be armed for a frontal assault on BH technical/APC’s whenever they surface.This is a time we need proforce and their likes. At affordable prices we can get over hundreds of these vehicles out of their assemble plant and straight into the battle.
2) Kitting of Soldiers: Proper Body armour, NVG’s, grenades, high calibre assault rifles(including enhancements to our ever reliable AK) should be provided for EVERY soldier on the battlefield(including food and pay). The rationale here is to highly motivate the soldiers to the extent that they would rather die than surrender an inch of their base or operating area to the enemy.
3) Communication Gadgets: Communication is key in this war, we must be able to speedily and tactfully deploy and redeploy assets as the need arises e.g Case in study the Maiduguri barracks assault: If there was proper communication in place, the NA in conjunction with the Air-force could have placed in strategic areas enough assets waiting in ambush for the retreating enemy therefore laying waste to them as they retreat(using their own tactics against them).Also included in this communication gadgets are eavesdroppers, the ability to listen in on the enemy is very necessary). We could also purchase handheld or motor mounted PA systems which the FG/Military would use to constantly broadcast information to towns and villages in the area ,assuring them of adequate security, and releasing hotlines or contacts which can be reached immediately for anyone who has valuable Intel to give to the military. This PA systems can also be used by the military to broadcast into Sambisa the consequences of the enemies action and what lies in wait for them the longer the engage in this folly. The purpose of this would be to psychologically weaken the minds of not too ardent followers.
4) PR: I say this with no pun intended. The Nigerian Govt and Military should as a matter of National Security and urgency employ the services of various credible online media outfits like Beegeagle’s blog. Our story need to be told, the valour of our men in the line of duty have to be shown. Maybe the military PR is occupied with the current battle so they should contact Beegeagle and the likes to shore up support for them. I would like to see a time when our citizens would applaud uniformed men whenever they see them. This can only be done by effective PR. A lot of Nigerians dont know what sacrifices our men are making. Various tour of formation should be arranged, one on one interviews possibly with pictures taking of men in the battlefront should be organised. We are at war gentlemen and we need to act like we are.
5) Equipments for Special Forces : Ghillie suits, armoured mobility, Heavy firepower, NVG’s, Comms equipments, direct link to Air assets in case of emergency, Good food and well paid(let the pay come on time)
Airforce:
Without too much talk, based on the size of the pie we would not be able to give our Airforce what they want…but we can provide what they need in the interim(All assets are CT/COIN based but can also perform other roles:
1) Attack Helo’s with Night capability (preferably Russian made) minimum of 20 units
2) Multi role Transport Helo’s with Night time capability (also Russian made) minimum of 20
3) Tucano a BIG must minimum of 10
4) We still need the Flankers ooh….even if na only 10 una go buy now….We might need deep strikes into neighbouring countries(with their permission of course)
Oga Beeg, kindly tell Oga at the top that this intervention should come up quarterly for the next 5 years at least (I done give am 2015-2019) to sustain this effort of professionalising our Armed forces so that we would not be ridiculed like this ever again, I believe that all these things happening is a blessing in disguise. Ehen, please also tell Madam Okonjo that we appreciate all her efforts at making our Economy the greatest in Africa, but remind her that without securing our citizens nobody go remain to benefit from the largese na!!! Tell her she should always remind Oga @ the top to make this $1 Billion dollar dedections every quarter till he hands over in 2019. GodSpeed Federal Republic of Nigeria
Forgive my typing errors
My dear Generals,
Sorry for coming to the party late. I have been covering my head in shame for the past two weeks because of the ‘needless calamities’ that have been falling on my country in droves, and the very shameful and embarrassing ways our government has been handling (un-handling?) each one.
My wish list is of course Counter Insurgency/Guerilla Warfare biased as that is the Clear and present danger we are facing now. as more funds are made available, I will start ‘wishing’ for moons like the Virginia Class Subs/Absalon, B2 spirit/Su 35, Abrams/T90 etc.
NIGERIAN ARMY
1) The construction of an Isreal- style Counter-terrorism village. This village will have all manners of buildings, schools, alleys, shops, dummies, abandoned vehicles, aircraft fuselage, power stations, water-treatment plants etc that SF will use to rain-up and simulate all kinds of attacks and how to deal with them. I believe this will be far better than the cardboard/wooden rooms that are hurriedly put together for trainings.
2) 300 units of IFV/APC that have been tried and tested in battle (Springbucks, Strikers,BTR-4, BTR-90 etc) plus another 100 units of Igirigi/Proforce APC.
3) 10,000+ body armor from DICON/Proforce
4) 3 Squadrons of hand-launched drones for SF and infantry soldiers
5) 5,000 units of Motorola/Harris radios
6) 2 Squadrons of MBB Mb-105 from Germany
7) 1 Squadron each of Mi 171 Terminator and Mi-24/35 gunships. (The NAF should transfer all its Mis to the NA so we can have a proper Army Air Corp)
8) 2,000 units of NVGs
9) 1,000 units of Tripod mounted Grenade launchers
10) 1,000 units of 50 Cals
11) 50 units of Russians BM 30 MLRS or Chinese versions (The US will not sell M270 to us)
12) Convert our T55 BT to Air defense vehicles.
13) 10 Batteries of Isreali Delilah Missiles
14) Training at the world renowned Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte, Mizoran in India.
15) Free , I mean ‘FREE’ HUMVEES in Afghanistan. Abi, una no sabi the meaning of free? YOU DONT HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING!
CUSTOMS AND IMMIGRATION/BORDER GUARD
1) 1,000 units of armoured Toyota Hilux/For Ranger (Armored by Proforce or DICON)
2) 2,000 units of ruggedized motorbikes
3) 2,000 radios (Motorola/Harris)
4) Construction of fortified border post in all legitimate routes into Nigeria and equip such with cameras and VSAT/internet facilities for online real time communication with Central Intelligent Fusion Centers.
5) Each border post to be equipped with at least 3 AK47, one GPMG and a flare launcher.
AIR FORCE
NAF should please as a matter of urgency transfer its Mi 17, 24 etc to the NA Army Air Wing. This will eliminate the problem of inter-agency rivalry and long chain of command/authorization is tasking these platform on Air support missions to the Army.
1) Total Radar Coverage Of Nigeria. This is a must. TRACON must consist of overlapping AOR such that there will be no blind spots.
2) 2 squadrons of Super Tucanos from Brazil
3) 2 squadron of Su 27 or Su 30 ASF.
4) 2 squadrons of J17 from Pakistan
5) Six units of High altitude, log endurance, recon drones like the IAI Heron and 1 squadrons of Gulma. NO TACTICAL DRONES YET PLS!
6) 500 units of smart bombs
7) 20 batteries of French Roland Block 5
8) 2 more units of ATR reconnaissance planes. This will enable the NAF to station 2 up north peering into the Sahara, one into the Adamawa/Cameroonian border and one into the Atlantic.
9) Installation of FLIR/Night vision capabilities on all NAF platforms.
I will follow up later with my wish list for the Nigeria Navy.
concerning the free Humvee from the US, saw a report on ABC that Nigeria had previously requested for excess MRAPs and Intel from the US but was denied on the bases of some Bogus human right record of our troops. I find this ridiculous and displays hypocrisy from the US considering the billions of dollars in Military aid that is going to Egypt despite the latter express disregard of human right of journalists, protesters, opposition.. I mean the Egyptian military freaking removed an elected person from office, threw him in jail and sentenced his supporters to death. Yet Egypt just recently got 6 Apache Choppers from the US. Same US would refuse to give Nigeria non Lethal military aid and intel. We should be careful who we call friends o. we are strictly on our own in this fight, its not be deceived. anyway here is the link to the report http://abcnewsradioonline.com/world-news/nigeria-requested-us-intel-and-military-gear-to-fight-terror.html?#ixzz31GhdnAwG
That’s the double standards we know the US for!
That there is the dis-honesty and hypocrisy of the western governments.
I watch ammanpour and the BBC, and hear stuffs like the nigerian government has refused receiving aid giving to it by governments and I just help but call them ( the west) bloody liars.
President jonathan has consistently harped on the need for the west to act in respect to the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW), go through all his speeches at the U.N general assembly since he came to office in 2011.
Our military chiefs have also asked for the transfer of excess defence article on many occasions.
Yet these people and their lying media make spurious upon spurious claims about the nigerian government and nation.
My happiness is with the fact that the Igirigi has been operational launched, we also have proforce range of A.P.C we should be able to build our capacity so as to completely eliminate our dependence on imported APC.
It still ball down to one thing. The need to change our PR strategy.. If we had secretly leaked the fact that US refused us vital non lethal aid.. We won’t be in this situation where we are made to look like fools. We really need to have a strong leadership someone like putin
My ogas, we must remember we are our own people and nobody else has the best intentions for us other than ourselves. If the US for which we know is a very hypocritical country shuts its door to us as regards excess defense articles, what happened to oil hungry China, whose arms are wide open and willing to provide anything to us? They built satellites for us, replaced one at no cost to us. China could easily provide us with comm. and intelligence gadgets as well as training. The US may have the best military equipment, but we can make do with others if they are not forthcoming. Afterall we are using the Hamilton class OPV instead of a Perry Class frigate. Other countries that wont necessarily tow the US line are Germany and France. With a little oil incentive, you’ll see them at your doorstep. And the Russians, ever ready to have a strong ally like Nigeria. We need to start learning to play our cards right. Nigeria is a strategic country with vast untapped wealth and central to the African economy. We should use this to our advantage.
The US are actually making a play for Nigerian defence business now. I think they want to take the Russians and Chinese companies head-on in this sector. Aerospace companies are developing stripped down versions of advanced choppers, jets and armoured vehicles that are appropriate for our needs and it is left to us to do our homework properly and procure as required.
1 billion dollars! good start but an intervention that was late in coming, but with the buzz #bringbackourgirls is causing I see alot of goodwill toward our military soon. The Mobile police force should not not be forgotten they are surpose to be our first responders in any crisis situation, presently I believe the NA is overstretched with them engaged in different theatres within and outside the country.
Why are our soldiers still serving outside the country at this very moment ?
We are at war, bring them home !
seconded, every last soldier.
Especially our 4 super puma helicopters and crews in Darfur.
agreed!we need our troops and assets in NE Nigeria, not Darfur.
With so many vast, open spaces and terrs mustered in mountains, desert areas and forests, this would actually rattle all in recced encampments sans hostages
70MM MRLs
One problem with MLRS deployment in Nigeria is ammo shortage which may explain (purely my own conjecture) why we have not deployed them at Sambisa.
We don’t need bean counters telling the NA that the stocks of rockets are too much and too expensive which is a situation you may get into with the high rates of fire – 20 rockets per minute in some cases. If we go in for the shock and awe of MLRS we go with full commitment.The systems themselves are very effective, the US even have versions that dispense intelligent sub munitions that can do a lot of stuff after being ejected from individual rockets.
Sirs, my fellow Naija warriors, Mobile Rocket Launcher System Artillery is for shock and awe or wide area bombardment, its rapid rate of fire like missiles and multiple rainfall of random rockets is it’s major advantage. However, they are not good for precision artillery bombardment unless you have fire control hardware close to the level of the latest American GPS guidance systems, otherwise MRLS is for spreading rapid explosions over a large area like Sambisa forest without any guarantee of hitting the intended enemy target, you may fire 100 rockets and end up destroying our ecology, wildlife, and nature by killing monkeys and bush meat.
Palmaria and Bofors F-77 are a lot more accurate than our Romanian second hand APR-40 and APR-21 MRLS, targeting is key of artillery power….fire for effect. Azimuth accuracy is put to far better use by artillery howitzer guns. Nigerian army has some of the best artillery guns in the world today, Palmaria and Bofors F-77. American and Russian howitzers guns are not better.
Boko Haram is a small force and it is too mobile, too sleek, too slippery, and they change location in minutes, you may just waste rockets and shells on them unless a drone unknown and unseen gives us their location and our gunners work out the azimuth, then…fire for effect and kill as many Bokos before they scatter in different directions to regroup again later. Nobody sits down and gladly receives artillery bombardment on his head, they will move away from initial spot quickly.
Then you need a very good drone to redirect artillery fires, then gunners input new data into fire control computers, a fresh azimuth is calculated, guns or rocket angles of elevation, depression and traverse is done. A slow flying low noise Tucano can also redirect artillery, helicopters are not good for the job because they are noisy and so big they get seen, and easy to shoot down with a 14.5mm HMG….MANPAD is another helo killer, not sure Boko Has it. RPG shoulder fired can ‘Black Hawk’ down an helicopter.
Best heavy weapons on a small highly mobile and fast moving force like Boko will be close range mortars, a small force is hard to precision-target with long or medium range artillery.
Taking the war to Boko, we will need close combat withing range less than 5km, need to see what you are hitting…we miss the firepower of quad-barreled Shilka AAA now being used around the world as anti-infantry and anti-light vehicle weapon in open fields, low hills, and urban city zones where the enemy may be on elevated grounds or buildings as well as flat ground level.
One shilka in good working condition will take out 10 Boko Toyota vehicles from 3km away in a few minutes, the turret rapidly traverses/rotates and sweeps the whole column of incoming vehicles with heavy rapid cannon fire from four barrels at once sprayed everywhere its turret rotates.
Mechanized infantry with speedy IFVs, APCs, Mortars, High Power Automatic Multiple Grenade launchers, GPMG, HMG, smoke dispensers and flare night illumination launchers, plus excellent communication, signals, night vision, day vision, targeting and early detection/enemy approach early warning equipment, will wreck the Bokos everywhere we meet them, even if we have no air power. Boko has no air power now, abi ? And the still give us troubles every week. We just need air power as an edge like any force in the world will do, yes an edge over the enemy and a game changer…capable helicopter gunships.
There is also a need to ensure that we get good chances to engage Bokos with 1km to 3km range weapons while Boko columns are still approaching and unable to use all their AK-47 rifles when our own boys are safe out of range. almost every village and town in norther Nigeria is surrounded by a wide massive open land, you see the enemy exposed in open land to your own fire while you are covered, you kill half of them before they get close enough to fire back. We reduce our own army casualties, sometimes the Bokos will turn back and abort mission if half of them are already dead 2km away from target.
Little contribution from my small brain.
Your brain is not small at all my brother.
What weapon options would you suggest for 1 to 3km standoff engagement, apart from mortars and artillery?
Oga Are James, Recoiless Rifles, RPGs and Anti Aircraft Artillery firing in the traverse range are highly effective in the 1 – 3km range. Also the Panhard AML would also do well. I believe NA has all these weapons in addition to mortars in sufficient quantities, why they haven’t brought it to bear on the enemy beats my imagination.
the Sagaie Panhard was the mainstay of ECOMOG missions of the 90s. NA still has them aplenty, including the old AML 4 wheel Panhard.
@originalpato, all the hardware you mentioned are great and the troops at the front line need them like yesterday. however, your RPGs and RR spg will not give you the 1-3 km range that oga Are James wants.
we can mount medium mortars on our APCs (and they can be utilized also while dismounted too) for indirect fire support close to the infantry.
the troops need more RPGs per section, more LMGs per section, light mortar, medium mortar, and AGS-17/ AGS-30 Automatic Grenade Launchers. do we have to beg USA, UK, and France for these? the Russians and Chinese can take care of our shopping list. hell, even, Turkey, Singapore, and Israel will provide many more. unless, like we are all used to hearing; competing demand and WuRu WuRu deprive the gallant warriors of these important battle winning weapons.
We may want to add money from the Chinese into the equation;
http://worldstagegroup.com/index.php?active=news&newscid=15452&catid=4
Personally, I feel we should completely ignore Western equipment for the retooling of our Armed Forces, starting with this $1 billion which I will completely spend on NA and Army Aviation in order to rapidly end hostilities in the North. First of all, NAF should hand over the current Mi24/Mi35 assets as start up assets for the Army Air Wing, while retaining the Super Tucanos and Alpha Jets to provide decisive back-up.
After this, $250 million should be spent on the purchase of Mi17(armed version) and Mi35 helicopters.The purpose of this would be to saturate the airspace while providing effective vertical insertion capabilities. At least 2 Mi-26 Halos, with the ability to airlift 90 troops over a distance of nearly 1100 km round trip should also be purchased to prevent the repeat of a situation like the kidnap of the girls. No need to restate the obvious that these choppers must be all-weather capable.
Initial orders of at least 1000 units of the Singapore Kinetics AGL 40 and 400 units of Otokar Cobra for use by NA SF and the 7th Division should be placed immediately. These should include provisions for technology transfer and local production within 18 months. It also won’t be a bad idea to also pick up at least 900 HMMWVs(Humvees) from Iraq and Afghanistan, if Uncle Sam agrees. I hear they are free. Including the shipping of the Humvees, this should cost no more than $300 million.
Spend $150 million on reliable logistics/supply chain. Nothing like a solider died because there was no Jet A-1 to enable air cover(Not saying that has happened).$200 million should be spent acquiring approx 120 Casspir MRAPs with the balance of $100 million being spent on acquiring at least 6 Hermes 900 drones with the ability to fire missiles and provide video evidence to Nigerians of Boko Haram being dispatched to the “72 virgins”.
This $1 billion should be the start of a extra-budgetary program worth at least $15 billion over the next 5 years which is geared towards re arming our military to top standards. Security is a good thing to have, but its expensive, that is why it is the business of government. It is for us to prioritize. My own two kobo here my Ogas.
*2200 km for the Mi 26
Just a quick comment on Singapore Kinetics, this company cannot give you 1000 Otokar Cobras. The Nigerian of about 200 older ones, machine guns and many grenade launchers practically made that company. I understand the advantage of standardization but maybe we need to split with other manufacturers and models.
Very good idea on strategic stocking of aviation fuel, lubricants and combat aircraft ammo.
We need to be able to sustain a constant tempo of pressure on the terrorists without interruptions caused by scarcity of consumables.
Support the Hermes 900 but they will debate that one in the Israeli parliament for sure.
It is almost top of the line for them although NATO countries have also bought the system.
If all else fails with acquiring Hermes 900, maybe we should merely lease the capability and the Elbit Systems guys come over, set up and then run the surveillance and kill missions as a service that we pay for.
We already have a relationship, they have an established office here and they have chopped Nigerian money before so the commercial details should be easily worked out.
*the Nigerian order of about 200 older model armoured vehicles*
@WachanGuy,I beg to differ with you on the traosfer NAF’s Mi-24/35 attack helicopters to the NA.I am surprise you still have that superiority complex aired by some NA officers that almost killed the NAF with the army can go alone doctrine! The army is not the armed forces,but just a unit of our armed forces.
Alro,if ever Nigeria should acquire the Heqmes 900 UAVs ,it is only the NAF that would operate the drones.
The NA Aviation unit can be equip with only light attack choppers only..
@Oga Are James I meant there that they should supply the AGLs while the Turkish Otokar firm supply the Cobras and the technology transfer for the APC. We can always integrate the 2 systems as we wish locally. The strategic stocks I desire should be able to keep the entire task group and associated air elements going for at least 1 week if they are ever cut off from HQ, hence base defense also becomes key.
Brazil,Chile,Mexico and Colombia are known to operate the Hermes 900 as well. Don’t know the exact arrangements but the fact that we seek them armed is the only potential roadblock I see on that deal, apart from funding of course. These drones will also be Army Aviation assets. NAF’s Drone units can meanwhile continue upgrading and fine tuning Gulma, using the Hermes system as a benchmark.
Beegeagle, do you know if we still have any sepecat Jaguars left, India is now the lead on the Jags making them under licence with upgraded avionics. Essentially we could engage the Indians and have our whole Squadron of 18 Jags upgraded and refurbished,I have no idea what costs this would amount to.These Jaguars have probably been kept in storage over the past near 25 years and probably in good nick, the Jaguar is still a very proficient platform and with modern avionics and arms systems could serve the NAF for many years to come.
I would suggest this option rather than spending money on cheap new Chinese Chengdu Jian-7 Aircraft that have serious doubts about their quality, effectiveness and long term durability.
This would probably been a better option than spending the $250 million on the Chengdu Jian-7 of which three have already crashed.
I can swear i just saw two properller driven aircrafts flying out of the Air Force base Aba road Port Harcourt with what looks like external fuel tanks (abi na bomb?) but damn too fast too be a turbo prob aircraft. Not seen them before and i dont wat to believe its that darmed Brazilian Embrae aircraft. I was of the opinion the Airforce base in Port Harcourt was for Helicopters alone.
They would most probably have been the Tucanos as they are very nifty for propeller driven aircrafts.
Definitely Super Tucanos.
They are turboprops but that does not mean they are slow especially when viewed by an observer on the ground watching take off.
Oga Keenee2k, We have a dozen or more Jaguars but in storage, The deal for Spare parts and services with BAE was squabled irnonically by the military itself, no way they can be re-activated. Its funny 1985 we were flying 3rd Gen aircrafts which at that time was amongst the best in the West, fast forward 29 years with unlimited financial muscle, bigger economy, 5 sattelites in Space, closer ties with the West including Israel and China and what are e celebrating? subsonic turbo prob aircrafts, worse, its not even cheap.
My stance is on best value, the UK has handed over licence to India who are manufacturing these Jaguars, this means we could easily particularly taking advantage of the sympathy sentiments globally to strike a deal with the Indians to revive these platforms.
We have indeed regressed backwards abandoned we have moved from 4th Generation Fighter Aircraft in 1985 Sepecat Jaguar which were at the time at the cutting end of technology.
Shockingly we are in the millennium going back 5 decades to 2nd generation aircraft in 2013 by procuring re-badged Chinese manufactured Mig 21’s, marketed as Chengdu Jian-7, is this what we call progress?
In this regard I would rather have a proven platform that during the 2003 Iraq intervention outperformed the newer Tornadoes.
Jaguar, Jaguar, Jaguar.
Where are the pilots (even) for these jets that some Nigerians like so much?
Decades in storage, there is such anything as airframe corrosion.
Condensation on electronics. Engines that have to undergo costly inspection and revamp.
You spend all that money to put into service and a British company (they are not nice people) sues you for unpaid bills and splashes the court case all over the evening news.
*such a thing*
Port Harcout is the mother station of the 97 SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUP tasked with asymmetric warfare. So the Mi-24V, Mi-35P and ALX Super Tucano aircraft can properly be deployed there.
I made a case for the A-10 but never got a response.
Now lets take a glimpse at the ugly A-10 Warthog and see if it fits our present needs for low flying slow tacticalinterdiction and ground attack against infantryet survivable.
The A-10 was designed around the GAU-8 Avenger, a 30 mm rotary cannon. that is the airplane’s primary armament and the heaviest such automatic cannon mounted on an aircraft. The A-10’s airframe was designed for survivability, with measures such as 1,200 pounds (540 kg) of titanium armor[4] for protection of the cockpit and aircraft systems that enables the aircraft to continue flying after taking significant damage. The A-10 has superior maneuverability at low speeds and altitude because of its large wing area, high wing aspect ratio, and large ailerons. The high aspect ratio wing also allows short takeoffs and landings, permitting operations from primitive forward airfields near front lines.
The aircraft can loiter for extended periods and operate under 1,000 ft (300 m) ceilings with 1.5 mi (2.4 km) visibility. It typically flies at a relatively slow speed of 300 knots (350 mph; 560 km/h), which makes it a much better platform for the ground-attack role than fast fighter-bombers, which often have difficulty targeting small and slow-moving targets.The A-10 is designed to be refueled, rearmed, and serviced with minimal equipment. Also, most repairs can be done in the field.
Durability (e.g North East Nigeria against Boko Harams high calibre anti aircraft bullets)
The A-10 is exceptionally tough, being able to survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high-explosive projectiles up to 23 mm.
The cockpit and parts of the flight-control system are protected by 1,200 lb (540 kg) of titanium armor, referred to as a “bathtub”.The armor has been tested to withstand strikes from 23 mm cannon fire and some strikes from 57 mm round. It is made up of titanium plates with thicknesses from 0.5 to 1.5 inches (13 to 38 mm) determined by a study of likely trajectories and deflection angles. The armor makes up almost 6% of the aircraft’s empty weight. Any interior surface of the tub directly exposed to the pilot is covered by a multi-layer nylon spall shield to protect against shell fragmentatio. The front windscreen and canopy are resistant to small arms fire.
Unit price? $9 million. Now i have seen photos of Nigerian airfoce pilots training on the A-10 in the U.S. Uncle Sam gave us two Wrships for free, theA-10 like the Harrier will be phased out pretty soon from the Airforce inventory, whats stopping us from getting this agile yet tough aircrafts? beats the thin skined Tucannos to me.
Oga Minetti a few months ago categorically stated that no NAF pilots trained on the A-10.
It is more likely that trainee pilots posed in front of the A-10s (I have seen the photos) while training on the T-38 Talons.
Ogas let’s try and be realistic with our demands. Uncle Sam will never part with the Warthogs, and if they do, they will be delivered in a state which would make us rather not have them. I’d rather go for the Su-25, similarly equipped with little to no strings attached
Oje I didn’t know that the unit price was so low, is that for refurbished or brand new, this is a far better option than the Sukhoi Su-25. The A10 Warthog is a beast the avionics and the simultaneous multiple target acquisition on the thing is crazy, comprehensively way ahead of anything in it class and even beyond.
We should now that we are central to American interests take advantage of these synergies and as well as American public opinion to leverage all kinds of assistance from Uncle Sam. I n another post I said we could get surplus 1000 Humvees (armoured ) for next to nothing, instead of those soft skinned pick ups that we actually take right into theatre of operation, that’s suicidal. We can also leverage 300 hundred Strykers APC and 100 Bramleys IFV’s. The US will support us because it suits their interest and incidentally Nigeria’s, a strong Nigeria brings stability to the whole West African region.
The issue is as our politicians look to spend this money sadly one thing will be in a lot of their minds how can I get my cut and so we may not get best value.
Except we have actually requested for leftover MRAPS from the US before now and have been denied. We asked for MRAP plus intel on BH including aerial photos of Sambisa and entire Borno and we where denied. We really are on our own
We can get those birds for as low as %7 trust me, hell even a few free. No one is looking in that direction, cheaper than the Tuscano and what we need. The Taliban learned to fear this war bid in A-STAN.
THE US government needs to explain to the Nigerian people why they cannot and will not sell non lethal aid to the Nigerian govt.
The US ambassador SHOULD ALSO EXPLAIN THIS TIME AROUND ARE THEY REALLY going to SHARE INFORMATION with their Nigerian counterparts the information they have on BOKO HARAM .I sincerely want to believe that this is true but based on everything i have read so far i remain hesitant, i remain skeptical, the thing that keeps me optimistic it is no longer in AMERICA’S military, political interests not to help Nigeria.
America has not come out to explain what type of NON LETHAL AID THEY ARE WILLING TO GIVE THIS CLUELESS GOVT.
American liberal left wing groups have had a field day and rightly so but when does the real aid come ? and I am not talking about A-10 WE ARE NOT ABOUT TO GET THOSE.
America to be genuine if they really want to help should provide the following
1) NVGS
2) Night Scopes for our SNIPER rifles
3) ENCRYPTED communications for SATELLITE phones to be given to Brigade Commanders in the N.E.
4) Highly classified SATELLITE info over THE BORDER TOWNS .”The people on the ground have to operate in the light”.
5) For the upcoming ops the people on the ground need real time intel.
6) Now that the cat is out of the bag can we now have the excess up armoured HUMVESSor are they still destined for Pakistan?.
7) The sea king Helicopters any chance of these troop carrying helicopters landing in ABUJA ANYTIME soon?
why should dey.na onli dem dey dis world?china and russia are ready to help us wit dat
I actually think the US is now willing to sell hardware to Nigeria. Lots of them.
I don’t however think Nigeria will accept the conditionalities attached to each sale.
for me i would d FG to exchange BH prisoners for d school girl.afta dat we can den go into full military SOE and wipe dem off
The thing that the F.G has to do now is to make a formal request in writing to the United States Govt for access to two types of Military Aid
1) Military AID under the Excess Materials act that should be CC to the PRESIDENT, NSA and the Highest ranking member on the democratic controlled Senate controlled Comittee on Foreign AFFAIRS and also Defense intelligence that will be SEN Diana Feinstein.No shadowy MIDDLE LOBBYISTS where the money will just go down a deep black hole.
2) LETHAL NON MILITARY aid that should include what I had mentioned before with an emphasis specifically on MRAPS, , thermal imaging equipment and training for bell helicopters, again the requests should be copied to SPECIFIC SENATORS with no shadowy LOBBYISTS INVOLVED top of the list this time should SEN JOHN McCain.
3) LIKE IT LUMP IT HATE IT OR LUMP IT, Nigeria has stretched out that begging hand and we need it to be filled in return to get those girls back , we are going to invite people we in a thousand years would never of dreamt of inviting to our shores,that will amongsts others include the dep. sec of state for AFRICAN AFFAIRS, ALSO UNLIKELY OR LIKELY TO BE ON THAT LIST MAY BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF AMERICA HILLIARY CLINTON and unlike OBAMA will not dawdle around excuses she will come.
4) GUYS HOLD THE EMAILS because “if I am going to eat a frog I am not going to eat a small one I am going to eat the most ugliest, slimiest and fattest one of them all” so I will remember the lesson I am supposed to learn.
5) The issue of exchanging BH prisoners FOR THE GIRLS IS A VERY DANGEROUS AND emotive one. I have said this is a very unorthodox war and it will require people who think outside the box to succeed.the minute Nigeria exchanges THESE GIRLS FOR BH prisoners WE CAN EXPECT THIS WAR TO BECOME A PRISONER EXCHANGE CHARADE kill 10 people today no problem kidnap some hapless Nigerian, Chadian, Cameroonian fill in the blank and this is what it will descend to.
6 ) This is going to end the way I believe it will end wiping out the core leadership of bh , including the death of SHEKAU / IMPOSTER and solving the endemic problem associated with procurement for the military.
Are James says:
May 11, 2014 at 1:32 am
What weapon options would you suggest for 1 to 3km standoff engagement, apart from mortars and artillery?
Reply
======
Chief, unfortunately nothing modern or useful in Nigeria’s obsolete army Infantry arsenal of today for such a tactical engagement. Nigerian army is now like a ‘Post World War II’ outdated force.
Well we have about 150 (Hard to know exact number serviceable because they are very old weapons) units of recoilless rifles like the Carl Gustav and the M40A1 types. Any army fielding that type of weapon in year 2014 is an obsolete old fashioned army. We have many 14.5mm guns but are likely with mechanical sight which are out-dated.
RPG ? It will fail you in that kind of battle, RPG effective range is about 200 metres, far less than half a kilometre, and RPGs are poor in precision once target is far.
RPG means that we and Boko don become the same level o!
A modern army Infantry that wants to engage the enemy at long range 1km to 3km away, will have modern automatic multiple grenade launchers and 14,5mm heavy machine guns with electro-optical night/day sights with target magnification, that is what a modern army will use. Me, I will not join an army that is still carrying about old school recoilless rifles to attack a fast moving and highly mobile enemy like Boko Haram. Loading recoilless rifles manually with your hands when your enemy is driving crazy Toyota speed 100 km/h coming to kill you !
If we want to use recoilless rifle, let us use 1990s modern models, not the 1970s old models, I even doubt if Nigerian recoilless are still working o! We never see them for many years with war going on.
Abeg open fire on Boko with brand new automatic self loading 40mm high velocity rapid fire multiple rounds computer aided targeting system grenade launchers, how much is the thousands of dollars we cannot afford with all the oil and gas we sell in millions everyday since 1956 that we discovered oil at Oloibiri ?
Nigerian recoilless rifles like Gustav fires 6 rounds per minute, while modern grenade launchers like the Y-3 fires 6 rounds per second. Our guns are 60 times slower to fire than normal for this 21st century. No wonder we engage Boko and we fight them, we kill some, and many still escape back to base.
We cannot defeat Bokos when both of us are using the same ancient weapons, nobody will be the boss, all animals will be equal on the battlefield….and Boko runs faster than all our armoured vehicles. See why we are in a kind of ‘stalemate’ ?
Maybe there is some ammo shortage on the Carl Gustavs, you would be surprised.
RPG 7 is a disgrace, everybody’s weapon, even militant armed robbers used it in robbing banks in PH years ago het our soldiers carry the thing and AK47s with pride.
Anyway it seems for 1km to 3km standoff distances there’s really not an effective weapon system anywhere in the world aside from recoiless rifles, precision mortars and some MLRSs. The flat open country landscape of some parts of the north-east however demands them.
Nigeria can also consider another weapon instead of Y-3 AGL which is more accurate with computer aided sighting and much longer range, but half bread is better than none if we want cheaper weapons.
So, Chinese option with much shorter range, much weaker sight, but also much cheaper and much easy light weight for one man to carry as an infantry soldier, we could have four in each platoon and Boko will run away in engagement, if not, Boko dies fast !
NORINCO LG6 automatic grenade launcher (PR China)
http://world.guns.ru/grenade/ch/lg6-e.html
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/imgs/denel-y3-agl-automatic-grenade-launcher.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id%3D769&h=550&w=800&tbnid=74SmTTaF42ydIM:&zoom=1&tbnh=170&tbnw=247&usg=__Smrwstd_V9V36AIWRS8sTJ3kGVk=&docid=ekCJtTBb16AVDM&hl=en&client=win8searchapp&sa=X&ei=nodxU4nFNNG_oQSHsYDwDA&ved=0CDUQ9QEwAQ
Gentlemen,
5 000 + years ago, Sun Tzu wrote “The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable”.
If we are caught unprepared, it is because we lack intelligence and we have no strategy. This places us in a reactive state and continually gives the enemy the initiative.
Spending money on equipment and technology without structure and training is rather senseless. As has been proven over and over again, “tactics without strategy and structure is merely noise”.
Rgds,
Eeben
Exactly Field Marshal Eben, BH seems to pick their fights to suit them. They choose where to stike when they want to strike. They pick up weak targets and strike totally avoiding where we are strong. I believe they also have a very good spy network (probably embedded in the civilian populace). We have to put a stop to that. I think we should now focus on bringing out a new strategy to defeat BH tactics and furthermore cripple them.
N:B I haven’t seen my package yet.
A good strategy is what I have said before.
Anti BH civilian force, an amorphous paramilitary force of informants and fighters (3000 strong) operating in mufti run by DSS.
Towns and cities secured by a mixture of this force (which would be in the shadows) and MOPOL.
The Americans were forced into this strategy in Iraq as well. The only difference is that our own force would be built from the ground up instead of the hijack of a tribal militia for its purposes that the Americans did.
The NA should only be used for offensive purposes and multi theatre surveilance.
It is also too regimented by nature to be used as sitting docks for an opponent that can use children, women and old people to probe its defenses within towns and cities.
Trying to remould the institution into a 100% COIN force is costly and will leave more credible conventional threats unattended.
Especially In COIN warfare, the game of wits and twists, where the stronger side does not always win. You are right @Eben.
COIN is an element of unconventional warfare Augustine. Defeating an enemy who resorts to an insurgency therefore requires unconventional methods.
Rgds,
Eeben
This is Nigeria, all we want are shiny objects, we’ll worry about the intellectual stuff later
Oga Eeben, i see you;ve been promoted to Field Marshall too. Your expertise on military/geopolitics/TACTICS matters is impressive and pretty broad.
Thank you Oje – I have served Mother Africa as a General in 3 armies but never as a Field Marshal. I am honoured.
That said, from all I have heard and read, I am proud at how you guys have shown how strong your national pride and will is. If you national pride and will can be harnessed to strengthen the political will, I now that you will triumph in this struggle.
However, please do not blame the NA for the unfolding events. They can only do what they are trained to do – with or without equipment. If any questions ought to be asked, it will relate to training and equipping. But, training without discipline is likewise of little value. Well trained soldiers with good leadership and strong discipline will do what they can with what they have.
Our thoughts are with you all.
Rgds,
Eeben
News just in, it appears Civilians killed over 200 Boko Haram members yesterday.
http://africanspotlight.com/2014/05/14/details-civilians-kill-200-boko-haram-members-foil-attack-pictured/
Reason why I have been crying for a heavily armed garrison in every village and this Boko war will end, only occassional suicide bombing will reamain, but nobody buys my idea except @Peccavi and @Bharat.
Well, I have contributed my own 2 kobo in national interest. I will go into fire fight simulation this weekend 12 NA and 24 MOPOLS Vs 150 Boko Haram fighters, maybe it will make somebody hear my voice.
Adamawa villagers kill 70 boko haram members.
http://www.channelstv.com/2014/05/16/adamawa-vigilante-group-kills-70-boko-haram-members/
In all this BH fiasco can someone please tell me where the hell is the minister for internal affair Mr. Moron? Because this is an internal crises.
1.) Air superiority fighter and deep strike aircraft. I recommend Sukhoi 27 or a later variant. Make sure it is the single seater variant. I would see 3 squadrons of 60 aircraft. You need a good maintenance contract, in many ways, this is part is more important than the aircraft itself.
2.) Armored vehicles that can withstand IED’s and mines. Soldiers should not ride to combat in nissan or toyota pickup trucks with no armored protection. Get more BRT
3.) Federal Executive and Legislature should enact a military procurement law that will make weapons procurement a function of the government and not an act carried out by middlemen on behalf of the military. This way a lot of waste and corruption is removed from the system and soldiers, airmen, and ratings get weapons that work.
4.) Drones – Buy some or buy more from the US or Israel. But make sure they work and you have a valid maintenance contract.
5.) Army armored divisions desperately need newer heavy or main battle tanks. I recommend German Leopard 2 or Merkava 4 from Israel. Get rid off the 1950’s technology the army still has in the form of T55 and Vickers tanks.
6.) Spend a lot more on special operations units = there should be separate units for the army, navy and police to conduct hostage rescue operations and classified missions against military targets which regular combatant units cannot undertake.
hope u wil find this interesting, Nigeria is close to getting 2squadron of JF-17thunder https://m.facebook.com/jf17pakistan/photos/a.591584010891249.1073741827.198183126898008/752812758101706/?type=1&_rdr#753194281396887
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/172275-exclusive-inside-nigerian-militarys-renewed-offensive-boko-haram-terrorists-now-run.html
See Premium times exclusive on the aftermath of the Adamawa battles. nice pix showing the effects of heavy weaponry (I suspect tank shells or automatic grenade launchers) on soft skinned technicals.
Kudos to the Nigerian press for these early efforts at meaningful battlefield reportage.
I hope we have fixed our logistics problems once and for all, so the boys don’t run out of ammo after every small firefight.
Idris Derby and Paul Biya, the rain of vengeance nd destruction that is about to befall you is doing push up exercise… i reckon by the middle of next years both leaders might not be in power;.
Oga Oje. I respect your hustle sir.
i see no reason why efforts wouldn’t be made to ensure the early retirement of these species, Sahel Harmattan must catch these people, as a democratic nation, we have to see to that. Yes, whether or not we are satisfied with our government, Nigerians have the power to vote and make our voices heard, this is a fundamental right i know is crucial in making leaders accountable, this freedom must be foisted on our neighbors, no questions asked. Word to the wise, i still think most crucial is a North-East border fence, keeps these suckers out for good, i’m sure tha’ll be further down the line though after the situation as been reasonably contained.
A breakdown summary of European, Russian and Chinese exports to Africa in 2013.
http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36592
European countries, especially those in the East, supplied a significant amount of military hardware to Africa last year, such as T-72 tanks, Su-25 combat jets and assault rifles, according to United Nations data.
The UN earlier this year published its annual Register of Conventional Arms for the calendar year 2013, compiled from reports from 34 governments around the world. While not a complete list of arms bought and sold around the globe, the Register does provide a substantial amount of information on arms sold to African countries.
One of Africa’s biggest suppliers last year was the Ukraine, which sold 20 T-72 main battle tanks, 20 BMP-1 armoured combat vehicles, five 2S1 Gvozdika 122 mm self-propelled guns and five D-30 howitzers to Sudan, which also received four Su-24Ms and three Mi-24Vs from Belarus.
Ethiopia received 29 T-72s and 10 000 submachineguns from the Ukraine as well as 12 MiG-23s from Bulgaria. These were airframes with zero hours left on them and, as they were dismantled and without armament, they will probably be used as a source of spare parts to keep Ethiopia’s other MiG-23s flying. Ethiopia further bolstered its Air Force with the delivery of 12 Soviet-era Mi-24s from Hungary.
Other Ukrainian exports recorded for 2013 include four BTR-3Es to Nigeria, two Su-25s to Niger and four Su-25s and 500 light machineguns to Chad while the Seychelles received a single Mi-24P attack helicopter.
Russia was another of Africa’s favoured weapons suppliers for 2013, exporting seven armoured vehicles to Libya, four ‘attack helicopters’ (probably Mi-171s) to Ghana and 120 launchers with 468 missiles to Egypt. Algeria received 101 Russian main battle tanks, ten armoured combat vehicles and four missile launchers. It is believed the tanks were T-90 models.
Algeria acquired a significant amount of military hardware in 2013 as it continues with the massive overhaul of its military. Some of its imports included 24 Fuchs vehicle kits from Germany, 60 73 mm HATGL recoilless rifles and 214 light machineguns from Bulgaria and eight air-to-surface missiles from South Africa. Algeria is apparently busy procuring another batch of T-90S tanks from Russia, which will bring its fleet to 305.
Chinese weapons also proved popular on the continent, with China supplying several new types of weapons to African customers for the first time. Tanzania received 24 main battle tanks and 12 ‘large calibre artillery systems’ from China, which are believed to be Type 07PA 120 mm self-propelled mortars, first seen in that country in April this year, together with Type 63A light amphibious tanks.
In May this year Cameroon was seen operating Type 07P infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and PTL-07 tank destroyers with 105 mm guns – in its submission to the United Nations, China said it had exported 11 armoured combat vehicles and 12 large calibre artillery systems to Cameroon. Other significant Chinese exports to Africa included 28 armoured combat vehicles to Ghana and 30 main battle tanks to Chad (believed to be Type 59s).
Elsewhere on the heavy weapons side, Bulgaria exported six D-30 152 mm howitzers to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 30 BM-21 122 mm multiple rocket launchers to Mali while the United Kingdom sold 40 FV430 vehicles to Mozambique, as well as 25 Saxon vehicles while Rwanda received a single FV430.
African nations bought tens of thousands of small arms in 2013, according to UN data, mostly in small batches. For instance, Bulgaria exported 860 light machineguns to the DRC and 300 handheld grenade launchers and delivered 50 73 mm HATGL recoilless rifles to Equatorial Guinea.
Egypt received a significant number of small arms, including 50 000 CZ 75 P-07 Duty pistols and 5 000 9 mm Scorpion submachineguns from the Czech Republic. Egypt also received a few grenade launchers from Serbia, and several hundred pistols and assault rifles from the United Kingdom.
Libya was another major small arms customer in 2013, receiving 15 000 pistols, 3 000 heavy machineguns, 11 000 light machineguns, 34 000 assault rifles and 8 600 underbarrel grenade launchers from Serbia. Turkey exported 4 504 pistols to Libya while the United Kingdom exported several dozen pistols and assault rifles to the North African country.
Malawi stocked up on small arms with 200 British sniper rifles, 50 60 mm M91 KUTINA mortars, 1 000 Romanian 7.62 mm rifles and 3 000 K2C rifles from South Korea.
Other significant small arms exports included 246 12.7 mm DShKM heavy machineguns delivered by Romania to Burkina Faso; 1 500 Serbian pistols to Nigeria; 2 270 Serbian light machineguns Nigeria; 3 100 light machineguns from Serbia to Mali; 100 Slovakian ZU-2 14.5 mm anti-aircraft cannons to Equatorial Guinea; 84 portable anti-tank guns from Serbia to the Congo; and 2 355 pistols to Burkina Faso from Turkey.
The United Kingdom sold thousands of small arms to Africa, for military, paramilitary and civil use, including 1 113 pistols/revolvers to South Africa; 1 350 rifles/carbines to Mauritius and 2 613 to South Africa and 2 950 assault rifles to Madagascar. Mauritius received 2 375 assault rifles, Tanzania 1 200 and South Africa 8 652.
The list that I honestly want to see is from Feb 2014,because this will list will show what if Nigeria did buy anything after the current defence minister (Gusau) assumed office.We need to have proof whether this administration is genuine about buying stuff to end this war.
Interesting
http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?source=GovDelivery&transcriptid=5548#.VIBCm2nFB3c.twitter
I confess i didnt read the entire thing, i scanned through looking for relevant stuff for Nigeria. The whole thing continues to look like a competition of ‘cover your backside’. The US in response to public opinion is doing the minimum to be seen as helping and then using global perception of Nigeria’s incompetence and corruption to pass off the lack of progress as Nigeria’s failure.
He acknowledges that they have made very little progress due to the terrain and the fact that the girls are dispersed, but he is quick to say we have not made use of the intelligence they have given. Meanwhile it is clear reading between the lines that they have come up with very little that is usable!!!
Anyway i blame us. We allowed ourselves to get into the situation where we have to take rely on their support. If we had arranged ourselves well before hand, this rubbish wouldnt be happening.
Nigerian military seizes arms-laden Russian plane bound for CHAD.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/172552-breaking-nigerian-military-seizes-arms-laden-russian-plane-bound-chad.html
Interesting the Chadians seem to be the most active player among the belligerents in the Nigeria vs Boko Haram Series. Does anyone here doubt that our Presidents timidity and lackluster (or no response at all) response has emboldened Chadian leader Idris Derby to continue funneling arms and money to Boko Haram to make sure Nigeria remains busy? Does anyone here still thinks the actions of the Chadian dictator is tantamount to a declaring of war on Nigeria? And now in this age of social and electronic media does anyone find it odd that these events are rarely reported in the Western Media despite the gravity and implications of these actions?
Oga oje the best way nigeria can respond to this is problem is by going the way of sudan , if we all remember the justice and equality movement rebel group that was wrecking havoc in darfur region was receiving support from chad ,chad conviniently provided JEM with trainin camps on chadian soil , safe havens ammunition ,intelligence instructors etc .The govt of sudan on getting to know of what chad is doing gladly replicated the gesture by supporting some rebel groups in chad these sudanese backed groups came close to toppling deby’s govt in 2008. Nigeria can borrow a leaf from sudan ,we can pick one rebel group still active in chad and give them what they need things lik arms , trainin in clandestine military facilities etc after which they will be sent back to chad to do a hatchet job for nigeria trust me these guys will put the fear of God into deby heart.In today’s world nations use 3rd parties to d dirty job for them ,this offer nigeria a certain degree of plausible deniability .
I’m hoping we can get a Beeg comeback or at least that interest doesn’t wane in this blog. I find myself coming here less…less often as I ain’t getting regular updates also taking into context the now receeding stream of comments filled with insights and more.
I hope something can be done or we might start slowly losing our bands of enthusiasts (brothers) as we all know there’s really no other blog like this out there or either another person takes it up..
Why don’t. You send an appeal to him? T-Mobile. America’s First Nationwide 4G Network
Appeal? whats going on here? Has Oga Beeg deserted? i dont understand as i was of the impression he was out of the country and will be back shorty. Why would he throw away what took him three years of hard painstaking work to build.?
I just got tweeted this on “Confirmed Reports Reaching me: Nigeria has finalised the deal for 40 chinese/pakistan JF-17Thunder fighter jets ” with a picture attached… can anyone run this down back channel to see how true it is? The picture seem to be that of the Pakistans.. but 40? thats a major coup
https://twitter.com/abbievon/status/542047135936806912
Oga Bigbrovar. I respect your hustle sir.
Let the military industrial complex begin, that’s hoping that this deal hasn’t changed from its original intentions, which is to have a co development of Nigerian Air frames on Nigerian soil, that would truly be a game changer, equally for our Pilots and Engineers, this gives us the opportunity to develop in house capabilities befitting a country of Nigeria’s size. Enough grovelling, pleading and begging, we will only get the respect we deserve when we start to manufacture, build and export. Friends will always disappoint, east or west, at the end of the day, you have yourself to rely on. Imagining the level of Technology transfer this deal proposes, Air frames can and must be built in house, Avionics,radar, and jet engine can be outsource like the Pakistani’s; then we gradually crank up development of missiles and sensors, shikena; all in all 5 – 10 years exports begin. I urge the private sector to latch on this moving train, in fact they should spear head these developments, build prototypes, give government the reason to invest in you, don’t wait for the go ahead, you see a deficit, produce to fill that gap, otherwise foreigners become first movers, and that market share is lost. To build plane no be rocket science, its not as hard as it seems. More research on Turbo-jet engines though, efficiency and thrust-weight ratio takes dedication. #VictoryForNigeria.
mobile.twitter.com/Marvinog/status/513789512892178432/photo/1#!/Marvinog/status/513789512892178432/photo/1.
Saw this
France-admits-ownership-seized-plane
http://www.punchng.com/news/france-admits-ownership-of-seized-plane-in-kano/
Why is the Nigerian govt silent?
Wao, this blog is dying
What a loss
Well, at least we now see the tremendous work Beeg puts in all those years.
Yes, but still not an exuse to me to leave such a tremendous work
Ehen, not an excuse eh. Linda Ikeji, blogger just a few months ago bought a N150 Million house for her parents. Not long ago she bought a N5 million Range Sports SUV for her self on her birthday. Just 3 days ago she bought a N1 million evening dress. Thats a blogger who does nothing but post irrelevant crab on celebrity gossip that makes no meaningful impact on anybodys life.
Enter Beegeagle, the true patriot, for months he has asked for financial support to keep this blog flying, did he receive any? NO. We are quick to forget he must have a life outside here, he must have his own personal problems like everyone of us here. I will not fault hm for taking a bow, the guy don try. People like Peccavi and Augustin have used this blog as an avenue to advetise themselves, posting 10 pages of crap trying to sound smart and outdo Oga Beeg. This is a blog not a discussion forum like skyscrapercity or Nairaland. It was only a matter of time, i saw this coming.
My dear Ojeh, it’s only matter of time. True success doesnt come CHEAP. Oga Beegs has done a lot of work which we all appreciate, he should’t let it wash down the drain is what I am saying. We both know this is gift he has been blessed with & obstacles will dfinitely come. But he that endureth to the end shall reap his reward. I strongly & passionately believe in oga Beegs works.
Boko Harams Harmattan Offensive- The Current and Next Phase
The current Boko Haram offensive appears to have progressed beyond the initial opening moves and is developing the preliminaries of the main effort.
This commentator broke the prior offensive into 5 stages.
1. Preparation of the Battlespace
2. Shaping the Battlespace
3. Isolating the Battlespace
4. The Attack
5. The Defence
This offensive appears to be following a similar pattern with the Preparation phase has been completed but without a distinct Isolation Phase although as will be seen Isolation of particular targets is still ongoing as part of Shaping Operations.
I’ve decided the Harmattan Offensive has so far undergone the following phases
1. Preparation of the Battlespace
2. Shaping the Battlespace
3. Isolating the battlespace
4. The Attack
It will thus be presented that the preliminary elements of The Attack (i.e. main effort) Phase of this Offensive has begun.
Caveat: this analysis is based on open source media reports and eye witness accounts in the public domain.
Shaping the Battlespace
The enemy has sought to maintain a continuous offensive posture throughout the campaign, which has served the purpose of dispersing friendly forces, keeping them off balance and constantly on the defensive and demoralising the populace. This has been done using raids and IED attacks.
IED Attacks: the enemy has made prodigious use of IEDs against densely populated public places. The geographic spread has increased with attacks as far apart as Cameroun and Niger State. Whilst symbolic targets like mosques and educational institutes have predominated the target list markets are most popular targeting the poorest and least protected section of the population.
Types: The most popular devices have been medium/ bag sized devices with larger devices used in strategic attacks such as at Kano Mosque. VBIEDs have also been used in Konduga, Damaturu and Fotokol to support major attacks. Mines or victim operated IEDs were used in Fotokol however it seems the main target were military patrols or convoys, however as is inevitable, civilians bore the brunt of the detonations before the suspected bomber was arrested. Rockets and improvised mortars have been used against Nigerian forces and Camerounian towns such as Amchide and Fotokol.
Targets: most IED attacks in Nigeria are against densely populated public places. While symbolic targets such as mosques and educational institutes have predominated the target list, markets are the most popular followed by motor parks; targeting the poorest and least protected section of the population, risking this almost becoming a Battle of the Markets (An interesting exercise as well would be to establish how many of these motor parks and market have been targeted by Boko Haram for extortion and how many of them paid up?). Majority of the VBIEDs have been used in Kano suggesting that these attacks are strategic and are part of the attempt by Boko Haram to disrupt the conservative Islamic orthodoxy in Nigeria. However the inability or unwillingness of the enemy to dedicate resources against high profile symbols of secular government such as courts or political party rallies (although political party offices have been burnt in raids) is instructive and indicates that the IED campaign is operational in nature supporting the offensive by tying up the security forces on the counter IED tasking and demoralising the population. The use of IEDs in Cameroun is less indiscriminate than in Nigeria with no deliberate attacks against civilian targets.
Bombers: This particular IED campaign has also been marked by the prodigious use of female suicide bombers, who are almost always dressed in traditional Islamic dress. Boko Haram does not seem worried about the backlash that this might generate against women in Islamic dress or else provoking such a backlash is part of their objectives. Curiously strategic targets such as Kano Mosque or the Ashoura Parade and schools in Potiskum were targeted by male bombers and ‘ordinary’ targets by females. This can indicate that females are less trusted for major strategic targets and that their use is more due to availability of ‘bodies’ and their increased probability of beating security than any deep strategic intent.
Method of detonation: majority of the devices have been suicide detonated although there are indications that some of the female Person Borne Suicide IEDs (PBSIED) have been remotely detonated. This can be deduced from the number of fully kitted out females who fail to activate their devices at the point of arrest and the fact that the bombers are generally seen with males prior to detonation and at arrest. It is unclear whether this indicates Boko Haram does not fully trust the bombers or that they are acting under duress. Timed and victim operated devices also made an appearance but these seemed to be limited to particular sectors like Mubi and Fotokol.
Method of attack: majority of the attacks have utilised simultaneous or sequential secondary devices to maximise casualties. Double the attackers means double the risk of detection but also means that even if one device is stopped at least one more will get through. It will also eventually have the effect of preventing people from assisting at attacks although even such a reaction will not be effective as crowds will inevitably gather at cordons or where traffic bunches is stalled.
The Attack
Borno State has suffered the majority of Boko Harams raids and major attacks, followed closely by the area bounded by Fotokol and Kolofata in Cameroun and then Hong and Maiha LGA in Adamawa State. There are distinct geographic variations which we will look at in turn.
North Borno/ North Extreme Nord: this area bordering Chad and Niger Republics has Kouserri, Cameroun as the eastern boundary and the Borno/ Yobe border as the western boundary linked by the Niger Republic border and the southern shore of Lake Chad. This is an extremely remote and deprived part of an extremely remote and deprived area that the enemy has devoted significant forces to with heavy and determined attacks on Fotokol, Makary, Abadam, Damasak, Doron Baga and others. This could be due to the need to develop and protect new supply lines through Niger Republic, by defining a clear ungoverned space in this border area, Boko Haram would control major smuggling routes from the Sahel into Cameroun and Central Africa, which would not only sustain their operations but provide them with a lucrative income stream.
South East Adamawa: attacks in this area of Adamawa encompassing Gombi, Song, Mubi North and Mubi South, Hong and Maiha LGAs to the south east of the area of operations remains consistent with the enemy’s sentimental attempts to occupy areas linked to the old Adamawa Emirate and Borno Kanem Empire and to more practical efforts to control access to the Mandara Mountains. Thus these attempts to push down towards Yola constitute a further expansion in order to dominate more access points to the Mandaras and the Adamawa Plateau as well as a proactive forward defence of already captured areas.
Bauchi and Gombe: these attacks are quite interesting. The repeated IED attacks on Azare, Bauchi State and raids into Bajoga, Nafada and Ashaka in Gombe State have been characterised as logistics raids, however they could also be seen as part of the preparatory stage for a Westward campaign to occupy the north of Gombe and Bauchi States further isolating Damaturu and by default Maiduguri. This follows the established pattern of raising funds by robbing banks and businesses and stockpiling food and supplies, stealing vehicles and explosives in preparation for a major offensive combined with an IED campaign tie up security force resources especially considering the considerable insurgent presence already in Balmo Forest in Bauchi.
Analysis:
With the Chadians becoming more proactive it is possible the enemy wish to develop new lines of communications to the west of Lake Chad. The actions in Abadam and Malam Fatori protects the enemy’s northern flank and secures their smuggling routes in the vicinity of Lake Chad, also isolating Baga, making it a difficult if not untenable base of operations for the new Multinational Joint Task Force.
It is instructive that villages such as Sagme, Gouma, Dambore and Soueram in Logone et Chari Department, Cameroun around the southern shore of Lake Chad bordering Chad’s Lac State are overtly occupied by the enemy in contrast to their slightly more discreet operations within Cameroun proper. These villages are the closest habitations to Lake Chad much like Damasak, Abadam and Malam Fatori.
Enemy actions to the south consolidate their hold on access to the Mandara Mountains and the Nigeria/ Cameroun border region making it harder to launch and sustain a counter offensive.
The raids and urban terror attacks are very useful in keeping friendly forces off balance but the large forces needed to capture and hold major cities such as Yola, Potiskum, Damaturu or Maiduguri make it unrealistic for Boko Haram to attempt to capture these cities but they will armd raids and IED attacks will continue.
The attacks in the centre in Gombe and Bauchi could be seen to be preparing the ground for a westward attack. This would benefit Boko Haram by further isolating Damaturu and Maiduguri but also stretching security forces further in another area that is less militarised and would have more food and fuel and a less displaced population to feed off.
The Chadian profile in all of this has become more pronounced and complex. Chad’s typical game of supporting, sponsoring or turning a blind eye to rebels in neighbouring countries (see CAR, Sudan, Libya for reference) in this case is more to do with necessity than geopolitics Although the popular opinion in Nigeria is that Chad is the Machiavellian power behind the insurgency it is this commentators opinion that Chad’s role is more complex. Southern Chads is situated is also a hotbed of current and former rebel groups, bandits and desperately poor people.
Much as Cameroun ‘rode the tiger’ of Boko Haram as long as it could until it got bitten it would appear Chad is trying to do the same and trying to keep them onside so they focus their attacks on Nigeria and Cameroun. However this issue needs more review and analysis but a cooling of relations with Chad (due maybe to French pressure?), would indicate why Boko Haram would seek to expand further west
Conclusion:
Based on the above one could tentatively assess that this campaign has two basic objectives Defence and Expansion split into several specific tasks:
1.Defend their current gains by threatening major cities in order to suck friendly forces into defending them
2.Expand to the North by expressly defining an ungoverned space along the Nigerien border similar to that along the Camerounian border
3.Expand to the Southeast in order to further cover the approaches to the Mandara Mountains.
4.Initiate fundraising, logistics and terror actions in order to prepare for an attack west into Northern Gombe and Bauchi
Taken together it be seen that the Enemy is strategically isolating the Area of operations, protecting its gains by pushing out to the west both at the Northern border and in the centre around Bauchi and Gombe as well as south east, insulating its earliest acquisitions against recapture.
Although the recapture of towns such as Mubi, Gombi etc are welcome, they do not solve the key underlying problem of fighting a mobile, asymmetric enemy which is that they do not actually need to take or hold territory. They win by simply making their opponents fight for it.
Unless the enemy units occupying each of these towns is being destroyed in situ then they simply escape to fight another day.
It remains this reviewers considered opinion that the recapture of the towns from the Lake Chad border south to Maiha are key, Gamboru Ngala, Banki, Gwoza, etc and more importantly dominating the area around Lake Chad and the Mandara Mountains.
It is unlikely we have the force numbers or logistics for such an operation but one would hope such a counter stroke to the heart of the enemies geographic vital ground would be something to plan and aim for.
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20141216000081&cid=1101. Saw this, what do you guys think?
Lol oga Peccavi, I no go read this one. No assignment be this.
Conscise Oga Peccavi. The actions of the cameroonians making the fotokol/amtchide route unaccessable have also forced BH to source for logistics, supplies and IED materials elswhere thereby their foray into gombe. The proposed joint border battalion will come in handy in the mallam fatori-lake chad-mahia axis.
I suspect we will need more than a battalion. They have become more serious in Cameroun and if they start gaining ground I suspect the French will step in in a big way, they are already providing a lot of support for the Camerounians but I would not be surprised if they start embedding forces with them deploying SF for air strikes and so on
http://lindaikeji.blogspot.com.es/2014/12/nigerian-government-buys-77-t72-tanks.html?m=1
It really hurts to say this we now rely on the words of a gossipy colummn who is best know for what stupid stuff she bought for herself and her parents.However as my people say it be as it be.My sources told me the first set of T-72 were bought from Russia.The numbers they bought were not up to 77, so this is where I am cautious on this report.The report also mentioned a suicide vehicle ramming into a T-72 with no ill effects,this is very likely to of happened as someone posted a similar story on Nairaland a while back. Anyway Oga giles thanks for the post, I just cannot make out the men in the picture and I do not know if this is even in Nigeria.Once again thank you for the Alert. T-Mobile. America’s First Nationwide 4G Network
Oga Giles. I respect your hustle sir.
The picture being paraded on several blogs falsely depicting a column of T72 Tanks as Nigerian is actually a column of Russian T72 Tanks, according to a quick image search. As to the Nigerian government purchasing that amount of T72 Tanks, that’s definitely good news, but i doubt we will have a picture depicting those Tanks in a column as they would have been dispatched to various theaters of engagement; all in all #VictoryForNigeria
yes o,oga hustle dat is d russian georgian war.2008
That is not Nigeria in the photos. However T 72 is not the issue in Boko Harams case, although it would be a useful for our Armoured Brigades
Certainly not Nigeria. Ethiopian army is one country in Africa that uses Ural tucks as in the pic and they have a good number of T72s layered with ERA bricks exactly as seen in the pic. I personally took some pics myself.
Two years after Hillary Clinton refused to label Boko Haram a terrorust organisation they are it again. American threatened Nigeria with military and economic sanctions for fighting Boko Haram.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=154_1400173563
Seems we got the T72 tanks afterall..
http://lindaikeji.blogspot.com/2014/12/new-photos-of-alleged-t72-tanks-bought.html#more
just to convince a few or no b our Bois b dat
http://lindaikeji.blogspot.in/2014/12/new-photos-of-alleged-t72-tanks-bought.html?m=1#more
Nice one, keep em coming, arerams go hear word ohh #VictoryForNigeria.
Oga Giles. I respect your hustle sir.