₦airaland Forum

Powerful Image:

An Administration Police officer parked his vehicle in the distance, walked over with a bottled water in hand in a bid to satisfy a seemingly desperate monkey's quench for water amid biting drought in Northern Kenya.

Under normal circumstances, these wild monkeys/baboons will never let you get anywhere near them.

Nooh can't be ! Nah

Why are my eyes teary

What a loss!!!! man this can't be rreal

NTSA:
The magazines seem to be empty.its like the standard procedure everywhere.

Maybe its just to keep the rifle light.

Regional meeting of frontline states fighting alshabaab happening in Somalia.


These were tweets from Kenyan president

Arrived in Mogadishu for a regional meeting of frontline states on efforts to stabilize Somalia and eradication of terrorism.
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.
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We must disrupt the financial infrastructures, weapons supply chains and sanction the enablers of terrorism in the Horn of Africa. Our collective effort in anti-terrorism proves that peace is within reach.

All Presidents of Countries bordering Somalia were present, i.e Dgibouti, Ethiopia Kenya.

Also agreed in the meeting is that leaders would jointly lobby for the UN to lift sanctions and arms embargo on Somalia.

From the pics, looks like there will be a big operation.

Somalia Jubaland state Government securing south Western Somalia

GreenandGold:
it's that spamming Augustine makes... the spambots have picked it up, and now we are all suspects

Haha , must be that

Anyway.

Ethiopia has taken delivery of the Chinese SH-15 Howitzer with a 155mm 52-caliber.

Don't know the exact number but from the pictures its probably more than 50

The hell is going on. Apparently my IP address from my ISP when I use my SIM card is banned from access nairaland. I had to switch to using WIFI to get a different IP to post this.

One of my favorite scenes


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V1hRpKYfcA&t=1s


Seem like Seal Team Tv show do their research well. i.e use of the A-10 in conjunction with Apache for CAS

From my perspective as a retired Army attack helicopter aviator, we owe it to the ground soldiers, those on the front lines, to keep the A-10 Warthog close air support (CAS) airplane in service until a replacement of equal or better capability can be fielded.

I say this from my 35 years of Army attack helicopter (AH-1 Cobra and AH-64 Apache) aviator experience where I started learning, in the early 1980s, that the A-10 was an exceptional CAS aircraft, especially when used in conjunction with attack helicopters. The synergy of the A-10 and the AH-1 / AH-64 in combat missions is phenomenal. I learned these lessons from participating in dozens of JAAT (Joint Air Attack Team) live-fire exercises, training (JAAT, Rescort [Rescue/Escort] / Sandy CSAR / PR missions and Air-to-Air (A-10 versus AH-64) with the Air Force Fighter Weapons School A-10 / JTAC squadron, and live-fire combat JAAT (with the A-10) missions in Afghanistan. One of these JAAT (A-10 & AH-64) missions in Afghanistan was during the rescue of the 4 female aid workers (1 British, 1 Kenyan, and 2 Afghan) by Delta Force / SAS in 2012 where I was the AH-64 team air mission commander.

https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2023/01/15/a-10-warthog-close-air-support-wins-wars-and-saves-lives/

edit

South Sudan Path to peace stalling

Pic 1: Wah! those are alot of names, on just one side of the plaque.. I've Never really appreciated the sacrifices our police make.

pic 2: That boy too young!

NTSA:
kenya police NPS and administrations police AP recruits pass out (respectively)

Security was tight at the pass-out parrade

Kenya AP police with CZ Scorpio Evo 3 A1 airsoft

This Congolese reporter couldn't help but notice how M23 fighters coincidentally seem to have gotten their kits from the same tailor and manufacturer as the Rwandanese General attending a meeting between M23 and EACRF

#RDC🇨🇩 combats FARDC-M23, coïncidence ? L'uniforme de l'armée #rwandaise🇷🇼 et celle des rebelles du #M23 , suivez la vidéo de Kibumba...du confrère @SabitiDjaffar pic.twitter.com/6EJXHSsAYh

— Justin KABUMBA (@kabumba_justin) December 25, 2022

GreenandGold:
This is an interesting strategy....

Still works even today. Think of it like a government sponsored 'Neighborhood Watch' .
I lost a goat, called our " Nyumba Kumi" elder, she visited the rest of the neighborhood about the situation, and the next day a farmer returned my goat. Said it wondered off to his farm and got mixed up with his goats.

The 'Nyumba Kumi' system started a few years back when alshabaab was running rampant incountry. Basically each and every houshold has to know the members of atleast 10 households around them. Those housholds then elect 1 elder who will be responsible for that neighborhood, and the government then pays this person a monthly stipend. If anyone new (lets say a domestic servant/worker) comes to the neighborhood, the household that hired the person takes a photocopy of the wokers ID and details and submits those details to the elected elder who then forwards the same to the sub-chief so that its known by local adminstration.
If any member of the 10 housholds see something suspicious then they report to the elected elder who fowards the complaint to the sub-chief then onwards to the local chief who fowards to the district/sub-county office which shares information with security services i.e police, CID, Intelligence etc

In my neighbourhood we've had 2 people arested and one of them successfully convicted 3yrs in prison using the Nyuba Kumi System of information sharing.
NB: The effectiveness of this system depends on the willingness of the particular neighborhood members.

Nemesis4you:
fab of what size ?

Specific details not out yet.

Yesterday the Deputy President of Kenya launched OL’BORANA the first advanced semiconductor manufacturing System built in Kenya.

The Company called STL Semicondutor is a PPP project between government of Kenya and a Kenyan Engineer who moved back from the USA. the factory and R& facility s located within Dedan Kimathi University..

From their website, main patners and clients in this company are DARPA, Northrop Grumman, raytheon technologies, BAE Systems, FLIR, Harvard University, Pennstate, SEAGATE, HITACHI, IBM, SAMSUNG, GEARBOX, Ministry of Energy Kenya among others
Also Raspberry PI's CEO and executives recently visited the facility and shown interest


4 main areas of focus:

Semiconductor manufacturing
NanoTech Materials R&
Silicon Wafer Processing
Cyber Security




Here is to hopping that Kenya DoD can secure encrypted comms and radios, then move on to aviation parts and systems, and then eventually to missile systems...
I also hope this will inspire netizens to establish other niche manufacturing industries that will reduce our over reliance on imported tech. There is already a local manufacuture that manufactures chips for electricity and Water smart meters and wifi routers so looks like the silicon industry is about to take off.

Lurker4Long:
Nothing to do with PR. Is there a market for TELCOS to invest their money?
In my opinion, Kenya definitely has the market. I've now looked at our internal research and based on the corporate and FTTH uptake, regulatory improvements etc, Kenya should see nation-wide 5G coverage by Q1 2024.

You might be 90% accurate on the Q1 2024 estimate.
Kenya's leading telco has been testing 5G network from this year. Existing smartphons in the country were not 5G capable, only new buyers are getting 5G enabled smartphones, so 2023 will be the year most people will switch... Currently only Nairobi and Mombasa residents with 5G enabled devices can tell us if they occasionally get 5G connection speeds while safaricom is still on the testing phase as we await national rollout in FY 2023-2024

Russia was the first one to post then Americans had to respond with a better letter.

This is the best time to pick sides... And the best option is to clearly show both of them that you pick no sides at all � He should host a Russian delegation when he comes back from the US summit!

davefurn:
International legion Vs what seems to be wagner. You can't see the enemy but the bullets seems to be hitting the ground




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsU74ubgHMQ

My uncle was in the army, He'd seen some action in Sierra leone back in late 90's ... He told me real war is not like in the movies, that unless it was a planned mission where you are attacking an enemy in a known position, most of the time you don't even see the enemy, you just return fire from where the sound is coming especially in umbush type situation ...
Only when they stop firing back then you know they retreated or you killed most of them... And when you kill them you won't even know if it was your bullet...

Stargate254:
Only the DRC central government has the power to end this for good.
But the rhetoric I have noticed from DRC govt drives me to conclude that the war will not end.
DRC govt views M23 as the terrorists that need to be annihilated (every last one of them) once and for all...
The M23 (who wants to paint the govt as the bad guys) must have decided to turn this situation to their advantage by putting the ball on the govts court knowing very well that the govt would be hesitant to make real concessions (e.g M23 being integrated into the army) with M23 in an EAC-led peace negotiations. So if the govt refuses to negociate then M23 will have the moral high ground to keep on fighting blaming the govt for refusing to make concessions.


For now, we have to wait until end of January to see if what was agreed is being implemented.
(i've highlighted the important bits for those skimm readers)

Under Point 3 (iv) of the document I posted.
P-DDRCS stands for Demobilization, Disarmament, Community Recovery and Stabilization Program

The program is based on five major pillars, including Conflict Resolution, the Restoration of State Authority and Security, Economic Recovery and Community Reintegration, Stabilization, Economic and Social Development, as well as Communication and Awareness Raising in eastern DRC.

The armed groups wants its leadership to be included in this government program, they want to be part of the economic recovery program, Community reintegration, , Social development ... etc
This will be the ultimate test, for one - if just one small group is left out then they will want to make themselves relevant by becoming more ruthless. Also the failure of DRC govt to implement agreements made with armed group last time around when SA and TZ were involved is what contributed to reemergence of the current conflict...
So hopefully this time, if the leadership of armed groups is involved in the reintegration project, and if the project is actually well funded, we could end up with a Congolese solution to a Congolese problem. It might take long to get there but this will eventually be the ultimate solution.


CC: @NTSA

NTSA:
The war might end before it starts

Only the DRC central government has the power to end this for good.
But the rhetoric I have noticed from DRC govt drives me to conclude that the war will not end.
DRC govt views M23 as the terrorists that need to be annihilated (every last one of them) once and for all...
The M23 (who wants to paint the govt as the bad guys) must have decided to turn this situation to their advantage by putting the ball on the govts court knowing very well that the govt would be hesitant to make real concessions (e.g M23 being integrated into the army) with M23 in an EAC-led peace negotiations. So if the govt refuses to negociate then M23 will have the moral high ground to keep on fighting blaming the govt for refusing to make concessions.


For now, we have to wait until end of January to see if what was agreed is being implemented.
(i've highlighted the important bits for those skimm readers)

fin

Tinfoil:
The J85 is a 1950's engine. So that stand is not impressive at all. Kenyas jets are close to being 100 years old

The stand is not the engine, the stand and the test cell can still be used to test even the most modern of engines.

An airforce that can maintain its aircraft in capable fighting condition for as long as you claim is x10 better than one with the newest toys with no track record of maintenance and ends up always grounding its aircraft for various reasons. It shows that the day we finally upgrade our fighter jets, we will still be able to guarantee combat readiness and maintain the units for a long time.

And BTW, the US-Air force and navy plans to continue using the engine until 2040.

Jun 1 2020
GE Aviation continues to steadily produce supplies for the J85. In May, the company was awarded a $394 million contract from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to provide J85 engine supplies for the United States Air Force and Navy.

“We’re very excited about supporting the U.S. Air Force and Navy with a reliable engine that has been flown by generations of pilots, proudly built by generations of GE employees,” said Al DiLibero, GE Aviation’s vice president and general manager of medium combat & trainer engines.

Not bad for a jet engine that’s all of 18 inches wide and 45 inches long. For many years, the J85 had the highest thrust-to-weight ratio (8:1) of any jet engine in aviation. Let’s just call it “The Little Tough Guy.”
https://blog.geaerospace.com/technology/long-live-the-j85-ges-little-tough-guy/

Also BTW, This private company is trying to build a commercial jet that will be able to reach Mach 6 speeds, ended up getting a defense contract from pentagon after doing a proof of concept demonstration.
The prototype used the old J-85 engine to reach mach 3 and added their own modified afterburner to reach higher speeds.... So I guess the engine is still good for something, it might even make a comeback

And I'm not trying to dispute that we need new fighter jets, but learn to appreciate what you got!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f6d40Ppz3M

The automated Engine Test cell at Laikipia Air Base is one of its kind. The Kenya Air Force (KAF) prides itself on this facility which is a reliable, high quality product used worldwide to perform post maintenance and repair tests. A thorough review of the T-20C test cell with its application to KAF operations has led to many new improvements, while preserving equipment compatibility and configuration.

During an engine test cell run, the required data is recorded remotely in a mobile control cabin in order to monitor parameters of the test.
This climate-controlled, mobile control cabin hosts control and data acquisition systems. Fuel is supplied through an external tank located at a safe distance in order to minimize the risk of fire. The mobile fuel system contains all the components needed for engine testing which includes a fuel pump, filter and flow meter. The fuel system complies with the safety standards and is compatible with KAF hardware. The standard fuel trailer’s capacity is 2500 gallons. The backflow regulation system improves flow and stability at high flow rates. Ground mounted fuel pallets are also available for large capacity, lesser portability applications. Mounted in a locked facility to prevent forward motion during engine run, the mobile thrust stand with a trailer provides a secure mounting base with a 48-inch rail system compatible with KAF rail transfer equipment.

... The test needs to demonstrate that the engine meets its design parameters and can withstand operational hazards such as Ingestion of dust, debris, sand and withstand excessive water ingestion KAF prides itself on this facility which is reliable, of high quality and is used worldwide
to perform maintenance and repair tests.
contains all the components needed for engine testing which includes a fuel pump, filter and flow meter. The fuel system complies with the safety standards and is compatible with KAF hardware. The standard fuel trailer’s capacity is 2500 gallons. The backflow regulation system improves flow and stability at high flow rates. Ground mounted fuel pallets are also available for large capacity, lesser portability applications. Mounted in a locked facility to prevent forward motion during engine run, the mobile thrust stand with a trailer provides a secure mounting base with a 48-inch rail system compatible with KAF rail transfer equipment.

The stand assembly includes four support jacks which are used during a test and provides a mounting point for the fuel valve. The trailer comes equipped with removable axles, a steering system and running gear. Dual working load cells can
several occasions for example during engine design and performance tests, during engine installation on the test cell following maintenance and functional checks, after overhaul and also during repair or inspection in the engine shop. But whatever test is due to be performed, the procedure in the test cell is always the same. The test needs to demonstrate that the engine meets its design parameters and can withstand operational hazards such as Ingestion of dust, debris, sand and withstand excessive water ingestion.

All this is necessary to prove that the engine being tested meets the entire scope of operational and safety requirements. This serves to enable flying, reinforce the technologies that makes it possible to fly safely in our air space as well as minimize the risks our crew are exposed to in all operating limits. A Safe airspace and mission readiness is the responsibility of the Technical Maintenance Unit.

Video if an F-16 engine after burner being tested using a similar T-20 test cell by Atec Inc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj4w7i-TqsE



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW49MSmRFZ4


Pic: The KAF's test cell's thrust stand holding the airforce j-85 engine at Laikipia Airbase.

KDF Lt Col Ben Kiplagat explains the working mechanism of the Rudimental Anti-drone Gun

The Anti-drone gun aims at eliminating the drone threat by employing denial of service jamming technique to jam the signal between the operator and the drone causing the drone safety protocols to be initiated. The drone should return to its initial take-off point or descend before landing slowly.

NTSA:
it's like most of the comms equipment is always netted with a camouflage net.

This is an old pic but it shows the tower in the background

IGpro1:
I'm not seeing comms on your vehicles

There is a KDF SIGNALs company deployed in DRC for both EACRF and MONUSCO-QRF troops respectively.

Their job is to make sure all forms of communication are available 24/7 i.e Video, data, radio.. etc
Some of those trucks you see in the convoy that went through Uganda posted by @NTSA are mobile towers that will be stationed strategic areas to ensure all vehicles and personnel within the theater of operation can communicate effectively without needing to use long antennas mounted on the vehicles.

I've been trying to google for the pictures that showed the mobile towers during the pre-deployment ceremony but after 10mins of searching I gave up, this is the best image I could find.

1: KDF on the Serbia-Croatia border 1995
2: Kenya's peacekeeping missions over the years

Alot is going on at the same time