signz:

What about the Super Tucanos we bought from Brazil? When will it be deployed? Or are our pilots still learning how to fly the fighter jet?

Ike Nigeria agwugo m honestly

Guy ike Nigeria agwula gi except you have another Country.

Meanwhile (1) the Super Tucano is not a jet fighter, it is actually propeller driven
(2) It does take months to learn to fly a new aircraft in battle. Better not to rush in and lose all the new aircraft.

My take on these stories is that the Nigerian Army actually attacked Damboa yesterday. They drove Boko Haram from the town, and the insurgents ran for the Cameroun border through Gwoza (just check google maps and you will see the straight road from Damboa to Gwoza towards the border). In their escape they avenged themselves on the harmless civillians in Gwoza.

As always it is difficult to understand the strategy of a battle till it is over, but i would have liked it better if the Army had put blocking positions on the Damboa/Gwoza road to ambush the insurgents as they withdrew. But then again may be they did but some escaped the cordon.

All the same we hail the courage of our men at arms. The truth is that most of the people commenting on these blogs are 10 year olds. Please ignore them!! They dont know that if this thing gets worse the FG can actually order a conscription of everyone 18 years and above.

They should be busy praying it doesnt come to that.

SiriusBlack: http://www.google.com/url?q=http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/terrorism-army-warns-personnel-against-misuse-of-social-media/&sa=U&ei=6EnVU9i-D8SCPbSRgdgP&ved=0CBYQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNGkfco8-XcxJCkMWuTZS_U5_ca5yg

FINAL GOODBYES...
I, SiriusBlack, about a month ago, started this thread on this wonderful platform called Nairaland to show Nigerians the struggles and successes of the Gallant NIGERIAN ARMY through pictorials..the thread was all I did with my spare time, uploading photos and encouraging Nigerians that the Army was working to make the average Nigerian safe..Thanks to guys like Henry's intelligent analysis of weapon systems, EasternLeopard's quite unorthodox tactical advice, Jakumo's frank assessments, IbnSultans ceaseless encouragement, Komekn's constructive criticism, quid's insults, adeyemik's comments, cirmuell's early morning greetings(I see ya bro!), Chris365's encouragements and all other friends I made here while doing this work, we built what can be said th be the best social media thread in this country...I enjoyed all the appreciation of this country's fighting men who toil day and night in the trenches fighting for peace..I was flipping. A popular Defence blog today, when I saw something that broke my heart and almost drove me to tears..while I have never admitted to being a soldier, I felt like the COAS's comments were aimed at this threas and all another defence blog we all know about...I felt sad and disappointed..the COAS referred to internet campaigns for the army as work of "Unpatriotic" and "Disgruntled" elements...my heart sank...all I wanted was some P.R for this war on terror..since all we were fed was inaccuracies on SaharaReporters and co..The Army chief, I believe, simply means that he does not want us to do PR for the Army anymore...perhaps Olukolade can handle it...anyway, I decided to respect his wishes and stop...I still have 654 photos in my archives, with 63 coming in today...but, now, ill stop now...Let the army do its work itself..not to give "disgruntled" elements like me..lol...the journey has been good so far...for now, its Goodbye..ill only resume posting if the Army officially hints that I can continue..till then, wish me luck, pray for me, as I shall, for you all...
Goodbye SIRS.(Salute)

My brother, you have fought a great fight. Keep up the spirit. I know you will come out of this mess alive.
Keep your pix and keep a memoir.

Nigeria would be a better place if people published more memoirs and biographies. Will look forward to reading your book when the race is run and we are counting the miles.

Stay Strong. Ahoooa!!!

SiriusBlack: Weapons recovered from insurgents..
Frontlines of the North East.

Wow ! this is a fair haul. A clear reminder that even if we dont see it on the news our boys are fighting and winning battles daily. The Nigerian Army really needs to up its game in the PR area. In the USA, they even publish names and combat reports for all medal awards for acts of bravery. Here we award medals very hush hush and no one ever gets to know of all the bravery of these heros. Imagine the inspiration this would give to young people in this Country who are slowly begining to believe that no good can come from Nigeria. (WHAT IS NATIONAL ORIENTATION AGENCY DOING FOR GOODNESS SAKE) But for the thankless job by Sirius and other guys like Beegeagles blog, no body would know what is going on in the North East.

Una well done. Someday this country would be in a position to reward you guys for all this good work.

CyberWolf: abeg pardon my ignorance..how do you guys measure this meters?..when I was in secondary,we use to run 100metees race and it's being measured with football pitch..post to post...does the 400meters means the length of a football pitch x4?

Na so my bro!

firetrap:

the accuracy of the AK 47 reduces after 400 meters while the the tavor is accurate up to 500 meters. Also the tavor can accept different stanag magazines.

True.
However, most infantry combat happens at between 150m and 200m. It is true that we currently have issues with the range of the 12.7mm Dushka on the Boko Technicals, but the answer is not really to match HMG range with rifle range. (we should be answering that with air strikes, light armour or artillery).

So at the end of the day most armies go for a functional, cheap easy to maintain rifle and in this area, there is no competition for the AK 47. You can practically bury it in the sand, bring it out and it fires, while some of the more sophisticated rifles will jam if you mistakenly get sand on it. The special forces have fewer men to arm, and have special needs so they can be armed with those sexier rifles. However, if you want to arm 120,000 men like the Nigerian army needs to do, then you dont have many options outside the AK.

SiriusBlack: Ill pardon your ignorance...Domboa is a town..not some bush you can just shell...most of the civilians there have fled..
Still, you can't just shell a town because enemies are there...war is inseperable from politics..don't be naïve...We boast of one of the largest Artillery systems in Africa...It doesn't cost the N.A to shell the town to dust...but imagine the political firestorm if we destroy the livelihoods of people living there...check page 0, I posted a phot of Artillery units shelling fleeing insurgents...you think we can't do that? Military tactics is not always as it looks in movies...

Chief Sirius,

Haba no vex for the guy. You have given a sound answer to what he asked, but he asked in good faith after all him no sabi.

egbaguy: like saharareporters or hate them......those guys are giving us what olukolade refuses to let us know. Like i was hearing olukolade saying damboa wasnt captured. I wnt blame him sha,he gat to cover up so dat We wnt say dey aint competent. We all knw u guys are trying ur best considering the rot in d military.

A glass cup can be seen as half full or half empty. I have a problem when a media channel perpetually sees it as half empty. But that is ok for most Nigerians, as in your view nothing good can ever come from Nigeria.

Note that when a people continually complain about their leadership for over 60 years, you have to begin to blame the people. This is because if we are actually good, how come in over how many years we always end up with 'bad' leaders. Like they say a people can only get the leadership they deserve.

@Adeyemik

Just to give you examples to show that the answers are not always easy.

The FG is currently battling the opposition to raise $1billion for equipment, and it has been like 'pulling teeth'.
Lets assume the money was secured fully. Split it between the Army, Air force, navy and DSS in a 3:3:3:1 ratio. This would give the Airforce a sum of $300m to spend.

If we even look at air mobility which you talked about, one Super Puma helicopter from France would cost you $15m apiece, and will carry only about 24 troop into battle. So this entire 'Father xmas' money govt is fighting for will only deliver 20 units of helicopter, enough to carry only 500men or so, not up to a battalion.

We neva talk fueling, periodic maintenance of the helicopters etc. In fact if you did a ballot on this site many people would prefer to spend this money on jet fighters and attack helicopters, not troop carriers.

In summary, the matter no easy. Not everything wrong in Nigeria is about GEJ and corruption.

A lot of the issues have to do with us as a people, producing poor quality leaders for the last 60 plus years!!!!!!

adeyemik:



@SiriusBlack,

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My heart bleeds seeing this picture. I guess this is one of the reason, NA is recording casualties everyday in this war against the demented BH guys. We all need to apologize for condemning and complaining that the NA hasn't been capable of dislodging BH or taking to long a time to accomplish the desired goal. In a sane country with sane leaders, these men would be air lifted and dropped to wherever they are going. This picture clearly show how vulnerable our soldiers have been.

Where has all the huge defense budget gone to or spent on?

Na Wa for us in this Country o! Bashing Nigeria and talking down at her is a National pastime to be done at every opportunity.

If you had done just a bit of research you would have know that very few armed forces can afford to airlift their forces everywhere, talk less of any African Country. Even the British royal marines in the Falklands War as recently as 1982 had to trek about 80km from Port San Carlos to Port Stanley (the stronghold of the Argentine forces), with each man carrying up to 60kg of personal equipment and weapons.

In Nigeria, we just imagine everything must be easy, and when we encounter any challenges it must be because our government is incompetent.

Our Government is certainly not perfect, but it is not necessarily at fault for everything wrong with us!!!!

egbaguy: @siriusblack........sorry to say,i dnt see u guys running over Bokoharam pretty soon. Even if d NA buys ammo worth 50b dollars,everything go go down as waste. U ask me why? Ok,if our borders still continue to be porous,if the raw material (ammonium nitrate) used in making IEDs isnt controlled,if after 5yrs,no sponsor of bh has been identified and knwn despite arresting some commanders,we will just continue to chase shadows.

Egbaguy,

i suggest you go read up the IRA in the republic of Ireland rebellion against the British Govt. Note how long it to to put down the IRA, and how many sponsors were jailed.

When are we going to realize this is no tea party. You imagine there is one key sponsor whom we can capture or kill and this whole thing would end? sorry think again.

SiriusBlack: Which?

Obiokpor, Also please bear in mind that all army units are communities just like any other. Rumour mongering is very common just as in any community e.g. school campus, village etc. The point i am making is that not every info from a soldier is necessarily true.

SiriusBlack: Well, for the reason that I dislike keyboard conflicts, I decided not to say anything about it..but I agree with you..posting graphic photos of bloated corpses was totally wrong on the part of sultan..many peeps do not know that unlike in movies, dead bodies are very messy...physiological responses take place when people are shot, they mess themselves or have death erections..sometimes, fingers have to be hacked off, because the fingers, locked on the trigger in death, will never be easily pulled off...I hope I'm not being too graphic, but there is nothing nice about corpses....in the thread that got wiped off, I posted photos of captured insurgents and later gave in to voice of reason and deleted it..I, also have TONS of photos of dead insurgents, villagers and soldiers..but I will never post them here...We all know that BH sympathisers like Amnesty International and one Sheikh Gumi are on the prowl to discredit the army...I was tempted to post the picture of one idiot who was notorious in baga area for killing soldiers and doing horrible things to the bodies...he was tracked down by SF snipers and his face blown open by a long range sniper rifle miles away....the pic was too graphic so I did not post it...so many times, NLderd keep saying that the Army is lying when we record successes on the front ...I get so angry at times I just feel like posting bodies of bullet-riddled insurgents..including the bodies of top BH commanders, .but rage is never an excuse of wrong decisions...so thanks for pointing that out..Pls guys, do not post photos of dead bodies here

Men !!! sirius no vex ooo! but i have to thank and appreciate you again for the good work you are doing here. The one wey sweet me pass is the story of SF snipers on the prowl in enemy territory to exact quick justice on the Boko scum.
I still say we should deploy the barret 50cal sniper rifle. The true definition of death from afar. can hit stuff up to 2 km away.

giles14: so dis our t 55 tank still dey?

Not T55, more likely the Vickers Eagle. British made tank.

Good guy!! Keep up the good work.