The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has taken delivery of another reactivated aircraft – ATR-42 (NAF 930).
NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.
He explained that this was in furtherance of NAF’s sustained efforts at providing more serviceable Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms in the war against insurgency and other forms of criminality in the country.
Daramola said the aircraft was received at the flight line of 307 Executive Airlift Group at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
He noted that the Chief of Policy and Plans, Air Vice Marshal Oladayo Amao, took its delivery on behalf of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, who is in the North East to oversee the ongoing subsidiary Operation Long Reach II.
“The reactivation of the aircraft, which was successfully executed at the Rheinland Air Services (RAS) Facilities, Monchengladbach, Germany after clocking 5,000 hours of operation, was earlier scheduled to be completed within six months.
“However, due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the completion date was extended by three months,” the statement said.
Daramola stated that NAF has successfully reactivated some of its platforms in-country in the last five years in collaboration with its technical partners, including the conduct of Periodic Depot Maintenance (PDM) on two C-130H aircraft and the PDM/Avionics upgrade of three alpha jets.
He, however, explained that it was considered expedient to conduct the maintenance activity of ATR-42 aircraft (NAF 930) abroad, being the first PDM on it after 10 years of operation.
According to him, this was also necessary to take advantage of the facilities and expertise of RAS and build the capacity of the NAF engineers and technicians that participated in the reactivation process in Germany.
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