Nigerian Air Force to train pilots in South Africa

Ten Nigerian Air Force officers are to be sent to South Africa on a one-year training course for pilots, the Nigerian Air Force has said. Another ten will be sent to the United Kingdom, according to Chief of Training and Operations, Air Vice Marshal Ahmed Iya. Twenty officers were selected for overseas training at the completion of their courses at the Nigerian Defence Academy and will return to improve counter-insurgency operations against Boko Haram. Nigeria’s This Day reports the pilots will be trained in combat operations aimed at supporting deployments to troubled areas of Nigeria. The ten pilots being sent to the United Kingdom will be there for a period of six months.

Nigeria has previously sent pilots to train in South Africa. In 2007 the South African Air Force trained six Nigerian Air Force pilots at its flying training school. Nigeria has in the past sent pilots to countries like the United States and Italy for training, in addition to providing local training. The South African Air Force is no stranger to teaching foreign pilots, and has, for instance, trained Royal Air Force of Oman pilots at the Central Flying School in the Western Cape. Nine students and an instructor arrived in September 2014 for training while Oman’s PC-9M fleet underwent maintenance