Thread by @DefenseNigeria

Been feeling under the weather lately, so apologies for the 48 hour hiatus.

Someitmes its hard to figure out the Nigerian military. When you combine the JF-17 deal to the Super Tucano deal and incoming Wing Loong II and CH-4 UCAVs, you realize Nigeria is spending

..close to $1 billion on purpose built platforms because of their precision bombs. Lets take the A-29 for instance. Its an old airframe. Even Mali flies it. We could have easily purchased it from Brazil at a far cheaper cost. Nigeria chose the high-end option and was willing to

..endure years of diplomatic humiliation and pay half a billion dollar.

Why?

Because we needed 400 Paveway laser guided bombs, JDAMs, guided hydra rockets and get this..5,000 tail kits. These tail kits are what transforms dumb bombs into smart bombs. This is a radical

..shift in Nigeria's way of fighting and for good reasons.

Pakistani JF-17s droping PGMs basically forced hundreds of ISWAP insurgents to surrender in conclusion.

Its not what they are accustomed to. So we not only have the tech, its also proven to be effective in combat.

Notice, its been weeks since the A-29s were inducted and 90% of NAF airstrikes are still being conducted by Alpha jets and L-29s, making use of dumb 250kg bombs, which increases the chances of unintentionally killing civilians in air strikes without ISR.

A stray bomb hitting the wrong target could spark an incident and give the enemy the propaganda ammunition they so desperately need.

Yes Nigeria doesnt have a vast supply of the precision guided weapons that have become the hallmark of America's air power, but we havea and

..are aquiring PGMs in our arsenal than almost any other military in Africa. We aquired them to be used for selected targets not against a state actor.

During the Buhari/House saga over the President authorizing the release of $487 million to pay for the A-29 without approval

the Air Boss stated to an "angry" House that the NAF campaign will be the most surgical that the NAF can ever conduct thanks to the use of laser guided missiles, GPS tracking/targeting and other high tech systems, so it will be money well spent. This shows the length the NAF

is taking to preserve civilian life and infrastructure.

Yes NAF airstrikes have been impressive when it comes to limiting collateral damage. But that is because of a robust and available kill chain, involving ISR assets.

But we have limited assets. Just two ATR-42s and four King Air 350i's operating in every geopolitical zone of Nigeria, and the Atlantic.

It cannot be available for every mission, so sometimes jets have to do with intel on the ground for bombing runs.

With jets like the Alpha jet and L-39, the NAF is bombing the old fashioned way..flying its planes over the target, releasing the bombs and letting gravity carry them to their ground targets. Which means for better accuracy the pilot will have to risk flying low..very risky.

Now, im not saying they haven’t used any of their advanced guided munitions. Yes they have, but so far there is nothing in the images and video we’ve seen of actual strikes that indicates the use of those guided munitions on a strategic level yet. On the flip side,.

..perhaps the NAF isnt using precision guided bombs yet because of their much higher cost. A typical unguided bomb is in abundnace and cheap, and perhaps also the NAF's relative inexperience in employing them.

Also we've lost a few pilots to ground fire, so perhaps the NAF has

looser rules of engagement that allow pilots to identify their targets with relative impunity from discipline over civilian deaths.

But we spent millions of dollars training our pilots in the United States and Pakistan on using this capability,.

..so if the NAF wanted to make it a priority right now, they could do so. The fact that they are not probably means they’re fine with doing things as they are. The classical fire brigade approach that pervades every aspect of Nigeria's culture.

This incident happened

because the bomb landed 200 yards from target. The NAF initially tried to deny but thank God they later admitted their mistake.

The lighter a bomb is, the more surface area it has, the higher you drop it from and the stronger the wind, the farther it can drift off course

The reason the army does not employ its artillery pieces en mass, preferring to let insurgents escape someitmes is because of the wholesale destruction they can cause, hence the army has serious reservations about using artillery on population centres.

For the NAF the decision to continue using the Alpha Jet or L-39 for strategic bombing or close air support has certainly demonstrated less care about harming civilians.

Make no mistake, the NAF is still the best in black Africa. It is the highest ranked Air Force in Sub Saharan Africa. With the stunning success recorded by the military being deliberately under stated, and with detractors armed with microscopic lenses,

..desperately searching for excuss to discredit the military for partisan and geopolitical reasons, the era of thinking it may not matter as much of some stray building is hit and civilians killed in the process, is long gone.