The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Monday said it has acquired six brand new helicopters to add to its platform to reinforce the nation’s air power in the fight against insurgency and general insecurity across the country.

Chief of Air Staff (CoAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar made the disclosure while fielding questions from journalists on the occasion of the winging of newly trained pilots of the Nigerian Air Force and their Liberian counterparts, held at the NAF Headquarters in Abuja.

Abubakar said following the acquisition of the helicopters which he said was the first time in the last 18 years, the Force has sent many of its personnel on pilot training in various foreign countries including the United States of America, Morocco and Jordan.

“Acquiring the number platforms in the Air Force is encouraging but for us to have these platforms flying, we have to train pilots. This is the first time in about 18 years that we are acquiring six brand new helicopters for the Air Force.

“This is quite significant in the sense that at least, we are building capacity and making sure that we have the right number of qualified staff that will man these helicopters and that have been acquired.

“Human capacity is the most important. You can have all the aircrafts but if you don’t have people who are trained to fight with aircrafts, you will not get anything,” Abubakar said.

He added: “Now that the government is acquiring more platforms for us, we already have pilots. This is the second time that we are winging pilots this year and this shows that we are thinking ahead of what the government is providing for us and I think it is really impacting positively.”