₦airaland Forum

JOSCOFELIX:
army

And yet it is the army that got $99 million or whatever amount.
Meanwhile, the navy is getting an hydrographic survey ship, an LST a frigate is also being planned. Wait sef, are you expecting the army to perform magic??.
This is further proof that the current administration is more concerned about rearming the military for whatever reasons other than countering insurgency than ending the insurgency.
$250 million will get hundreds of modern tanks/mraps/IFVs. Imagine how that will change the situation of the war.

The army even has to get bullets out of the so called capital intervention. Shouldn't that be a recurrent expenditure? If they allocate 10k or 20k on bullets for every man of the NA per month, will they die?

JOSCOFELIX:
oga more is coming mostly from china mbt 8*8 apc,sf1 tank,mrap are coming.but remember this money is for the three armed force

From a layman's perspective, which of the services do you think should be prioritized over the others?

Toju200:
they didn't buy the T-90 instead they used the money for the Isortex vehicles (Phantom,Legion)

My point still stands, how many units of the vehicles did they get?.
Legion has proven its worth in the NE, but how many units did they get?
The armored recovery vehicles too are great to ensure troops leave nothing behind for the terrorists to use for PR. Majority of the phantom APCs the terrorists published as captured in January and February were abandoned by troops when they could not move them. But what will 10 units do?
Buying 75hp tractor to plough 10,000ha and you expect not to lose your investment.

Well at least some people are now thinking at DHQ with the quality of weapons being purchased. Soon we may start seeing good quantities.

xterra2:
$1bn fund: How defence ministry purchased N37.9bn military vehicles, arms

The Ministry of Defence has purchased equipment for the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and the Defence Intelligence Agency worth $99.5m (N37.9bn), out of the $1bn approved by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Sunday PUNCH can authoritatively report.


Buhari had told the National Assembly in 2018 that he ordered the payment of $496m to the United States Government for the purchase of 12 Tucano aircraft ahead of legislative approval to withdraw the $1bn fund from the Excess Crude Account.

Documents obtained by our correspondent showed that the Ministry of Defence subsequently awarded contracts worth a total of $99,538,467.23 for the military equipment.

The ‘Certificate of No Objection for Award of Contract’ issued by the Bureau of Public Procurement (Ref No. BPP/S.1/Vol.XV/19/114), dated January 16, 2020, referred to the source of funding for the military hardware as “$1bn under the Intervention Fund subject to Mr President’s approval,” while indicating that the Ministry of Defence was the implementing ministry/agency.

The document was signed by the Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Mamman Ahmadu; and BPP Director, Compliance, Certification and Monitoring, Ishaq Yahaya.

The Ministry of Defence, on September 17, 2018, also approved a ‘Letter of Award of Contract for the Procurement of Critical Equipment – Two Types of Vehicles, Reutech Surveillance Equipment, Three Types of Weapons and Three Types of Ammunitions for the Nigerian Navy’ (Ref No. MOD/PROC/SIF/2018/1/2).

Items listed under the ‘Vehicles’ category included 10 units of T-90 Tank Second Generation ($43.68m), and 10 units of BREM-4 Armoured Recovery ($20,794,619.56).

Under ‘Surveillance Equipment,’ the document quoted 20 units of Ground Surveillance Radar equipment – Reutech ($7,041,245.91), while the ‘Weapons’ category comprised 20 units of 81mm mortar ($1,050,600), 120 units of MG-127-DSHK-M guns ($2,715,553.80), and 2,012 units of AKMS rifles ($1,608,151.36).

Under ‘Ammunitions,’ the items listed included 8,141 units of 81mm Mortar Bombs ($9,955,615.97), 1,103,000 rounds of 12.7mmx108mm Cartridges ($7,157,367), and 3,259 units of 122mm Grad (Rocket) ($5,535,313.73).

However, in a letter with Ref No. MOD/PROC/SIF/2018/1/2 dated February 5, 2020, the ministry sought to replace the $43.68m T-90 tanks in the previous document with a new list of items for the same amount.


The document is titled ‘Letter for Award of Contract for the Procurement of Critical Equipment for the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and the Defence Intelligence Agency: Replacement of the 10 T-90 Tanks with 60 Legion MRAP Including DSHK Guns, Codan HF Vehicular Radio and Automatic Turret with Pre-Shipment Inspection; and 24 Phantom II APC Including Pre-Shipment Inspection, Complete with Spares, Training and Maintenance.’

Under the ‘Legion MRAP’ category, the document listed 60 units each of Legion MRAP vehicles ($475,587.42), 12.7mm DSHK AA Guns ($18,750), Codan Radios ($6,920), and Armoured Turrets ($29,631).

Under the ‘Phantom II APC’ category, the document listed 24 units each of Phantom II Armoured Personnel Carriers ($385,208.67), 12.7mm DSHK AA Guns ($18,750), Codan ($6,920), and Turret ($29,631).

The sub-totals of the Legion MRAP ($530,888.42) and Phantom II APC ($440,509.67) added up to $971,398.09. However, the total contract sum was put at $43,680,000, including ‘Total for MRAP and Phantom II APC including pre-shipment inspection’ ($42,425,537.10), and ‘Balance for Spares + Training + Maintenance’ ($1,254,462.90).

Further investigation showed that several shipments of some of the listed equipment were obtained by the military with certificates of delivery issued by Brig-Gen B.A. Ilori or Brig-Gen M.T. Jinadu, for the Chief of Army Staff.

According to one letter dated May 29, 2019, the Nigerian Army, in Abuja on May 20 and 22, 2019, took delivery of 2012 AKMS rifles, 70 DSHK 12.7mm guns, 250 CZ 75 pistols and 550 units of 122mm Grad rockets.

In another document dated November 29, 2019, the Army confirmed receipt of 3,259 122mm Grad rockets, 20 40x46mm LV HE cartridges, 160 7.62mmx54mm ball-rimmed cartridges, 167 7.62mmx51mm metal link cartridges, and 30,939 7.62mmx39mm ball special cartridges.

Also, a letter dated January 31, 2020, indicated the delivery of 20 GSRS through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on December 26, 2019. Another dated September 3, 2020, said the Army received 84 DSHK guns on August 11, 2020, and “found to be new and suitable for operational use.”

While a January 5, 2021 letter showed that the Army took receipt of 24 Phantom II APCs on December 14, 2020, another dated January 6, 2021 said 589,337 rounds of 12.7mmx108mm cartridges were delivered on December 12, 2020 and found to be “new and suitable.”

A document dated March 23, 2021, also confirmed the delivery of 20 81mm mortars and 8,141 81mm mortar bombs were delivered on September 18, 2020.

Sunday PUNCH gathered that several items had yet to be delivered as international flights came to a standstill owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Government finally lifted the restriction on flights in September 2020, six months after the ban took effect.

A Supplementary Agreement between the Federal Government and the contractor dated August 12, 2020 said, “Further execution of the contract has been stalled since February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the embargo on international flights that has prevented the carrying out of the mandatory pre-shipment inspection by the authorised representatives of the buyer (Federal Government).”

Based on the contract awarded by the defence ministry, the items yet to be delivered include 10 BREM-4 Armoured Recovery vehicles ($20,794,619.56), 50 MG-127-DSHK-M guns ($1,131,480.75), 513,663 12.7x108mm cartridges ($3,333,159.21), 84 Codan radios ($13,840), and 84 Armoured Turrets ($59,262). The total cost of the remaining items is $25,332,361.52.



https://punchng.com/1bn-fund-how-defence-ministry-purchased-n37-9bn-military-vehicles-arms/

Poor acquisitions again. The quality is great but the quantity is nonsense.
If they buy 100 units of T-90, will they die
They've barely spent $100 million out of the $1 billion, where is the rest?

xterra2:
Saw this article
https://dailytrust.com/how-b-haram-survives-on-weapons-stolen-from-nigerian-military

^^ Is this chart true ?

They get weapons from sacking military formations in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger. They also buy from black markets. Majority of their guntrucks were captured from NA.
As for the article, the writers are cunningly tailoring a narrative. The terrorists almost never capture armored vehicles and tanks they destroy them when they get their hands on them because they can't maintain them.
The origin of capturing weapons from military is poorly manned and isolated FOBs that were easily overrun prior to initiating the supercamps. Till date only one supercamp has been captured by the terrorists. Most of the guntrucks captured were captured after ambushes on patrols.
And yes in every war, the lesser armed forces go after the stockpiles of the well armed forces. It is normal in every war. Military equipments are usually captured or destroyed, it shouldn't be made to seem like the military is giving out the weapons.

There is a reason why modern military equipments have self-destruct facilities incorporated into them. The VT-4 has a button that will fry the electronics of the tanks in the event of unavoidable capture.

Till date, I haven't seen a destroyed or captured Ara MRAP.
The Bigfoot also performed excellently considering the number of years it has spent in the north east.

SamuelAnyawu:
You’ve said it all. A week to the Sallah festivity I’m off to Maiduguri.
The method of defending just supercamps and leaving ISWAP to have a field day in the host community remains a slap on our armed forces. Tho ISWAP never tried this when our Neighboring Soldiers were around, well they knew it will result In an open shootout

Good Morning great Patriots

Good advice; the best time to leave is now, the second best time is by the end of the month. The last 10 days of Ramadan may be very bloody.

I don't know much about the civil-military relationships in the northeast but one of the things that makes military abandon civilians is if the civilians have refused to cooperate with the military or are sabotaging the military's effort or are cooperating with the enemy. The first responsibility of any officer is to protect his troops and in any of the above scenarios, a good officer will rather opt to protect his troops.
The governor should work with the military command in the state to improve relationships and how the military and civilians can benefit from each other. The people should know that when they help the military, their town will never fall. This I think distinguish towns in Southern Borno and yobe from those of Central Borno.

One thing to take away from the Geidam attack is that ISWAP now has a good strategy to evade airstrikes when attacking towns. Once the Gan access to the town, they guarantee the local population safety and make them see no reason to flee. Moving around in a town alongside the locals will ensure that no bomb, rocket and cannons are used. It is now up to NA to prevent the terrorists from entering populated towns. It is up to NAF to ensure that air support are delivered far more timely than before to ensure the destruction of the terrorists while the garrisons are still holding them outside the town.
Perhaps it's time DHQ involves another division in this war alongside 7 division. Maybe 3 division or 2 division that has other divisions very close to them to fill in for them while they are away in the north east.

And also, there will most likely be another attack between now and Tuesday. It could be Damasak or Dikwa and any other town to loot the armory that will eventually be used to attack Damasak.
As we are now in the second half of Ramadan, the attacks will be more frequent, they will get bolder and deploy more numbers. They vowed to celebrate sallah in Damasak and there will be a lot of pressure on their leaders to deliver on that promise.

Also, if the troops of the supercamps will just sit in their supercamps and defend that instead of the town, then we might as well start closing the camps down and sending the soldiers back to their barracks. The super camps in any town should be able to defend the town on all flanks. Not defending the super camp.

There is need for an additional layer of trench in all these towns. Between the first layer of trench and the second, the troops can hold them there until air support arrives.
When the terrorists move past the first layer, they will only have one route to escape through and if they've moved too far away from the exit point, they will be forced out abandon vehicles when escaping.
Also, barricades should be deployed on strategic routes within the town that will funnel the terrorists to choke points where they can be held or at least slow them down for the airforce to pick up. The choke points will be so narrow that they will only be able to use one or two guntrucks at a time and the rest will be lined up behind those in front.
Strategic roads should be cut and dug so that they can only be plied with the use of pontoon bridges or anything else that can serve that purpose and is very mobile without which an advancing enemy will be stopped or forced to turn back. This should be especially used on roads leading to armouries and other important buildings.

SamuelAnyawu:
How would we solve this issue of blackout in Borno.

Abi we go wait till Insurgency end?

Independent power plant, probably solar or gas... Gas will be more effective. It can be set in within a month if the state government is serious. ISWAP will want to go after gas supplies(pipelines or tankers) so it will be reasonable to consider biogas. The waste generated within each city/towns should be used to power the plants.

Perhaps the greatest undoing of the current service chiefs will be not playing the PR game with the terrorists. Those videos had great effects on how Nigerians perceived the war when they were releasing them but was unfortunately too late for the service chiefs at that time.

JOSCOFELIX:
check this out. the large area gudzamla carry

Can you please provide a link to the document?

JOSCOFELIX:
thanks, good point sir. respectfully i think the Nigeria government later went to country like china and Russia. check that out

Yeah, but not fully..... Maybe it's time we stop being a third world country and align totally with either faction. We are too weak to be forming non-aligned. And we can also go the Iranian way.


We just need a lot of reforms in every sector. They will take several years before we start seeing results but it is probably the only thing that can save Nigeria.

JOSCOFELIX:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1385139732695355396 WATCH THIS AND MAKE YOU STUDY PLEASE

Maj. Gen Wahab was/is a very brilliant military officer, very capable in military affairs but he should leave foreign policy and international politics to those who are professionals in these fields.
The laws he talked about weren't created specifically to punish Nigeria, smart governments know their ways around them. NGOs are the same all over the world, smart people know how to put them in their place and prevent them from hindering their successes.
If the west won't help you because it is against their own interests, why not find friends that your interests align with and can help you or align your own interests with those of the countries that can help you.
If the west doesn't sell weapons to you, the east will. For every weapon type the west has to offer, the East has an equivalent or something that can serve the same purpose.
Is it only the west that has satellites? What happened to Russia and China? What happened to launching your own satellites?
Excuses won't get us anywhere.

We are nearing weekend again and terrorist attack is highly expected in line with recent trends. Now i suspect they will attack Damasak again because they vowed to celebrate Salah there or Dikwa because it is the only supercamp to have fallen to terrorists attack and more than once at that and they might need something to use for propaganda do deflect from weakness and/or to get more weapons and resources which will in turn be used to attack Damasak later on.

An entirely different town might be attacked too(maybe marte) but the goals won't be far from that of attacking Dikwa.


I believe there is something very wrong with the defenses of Dikwa, something needs to be done about it. Maybe deepen the trench, reinforcing the garrison and providing assets that can be used for aggressive patrols and scouting. Whoever is in command of the supercamp should also make good use of snipers to take out guntrucks gunners and drivers as the terrain is relatively flat and snipers on elevated positions (towers, telecommunications mast etc) in the town will find snipping very easy.

Some important observation: the frequency of troops falling into ambush has reduced a lot and it is the terrorists that are now getting ambushed. Any reason as to this?

SuperSixSeven:
He will tell you his Intel passed to him hours before it could be found on twitter.

Open source intelligence is also intel. If you don't have personal issues with this guy, you really should free him. You don't have to believe whatever he says and you have every right to counter his claims if you have proofs but you really need to stop whining all over his posts. Sieve through his "intels" take whatever is beneficial to you out of it, criticise/correct if you have proofs against anything he says or let him be. I am actually pleading with you, all these aren't necessary and it doesn't benefit anyone or serve any meaningful purpose.

Up until last week, I believed the 72 SF had been scrapped and the troops joined with another battalion and everytime he claimed they were still in existence, I disbelieved until DHQ released a statement with 72 SF featuring.

Whyem15:
Unconfirmed reports of the injury or death of Mahamat Kaka Idris Deby.

Disregard

Unconfirmed reports of the injury or death of Mahamat Kaka Idris Deby.

The Nigerian military has raised alert level.

SamuelAnyawu:
My Shuwa colleagues are crying .

Brb make I join them cry as one of my female colleagues helping me out here in deep field Na Shuwa

You can contact any officer of 7 division to confirm. Particularly those presently in maiduguri, maybe working in the HQ.

Maybe the French and US bases there will support him for stability.

youghs:
Sometimes you just wonder who we offended in Nigeria. Problems from left to right to east to north to west to south.

Just imagine how things would have been if we had been arming and developing the military since 1999...... This is how the foolishness of few alters the destiny of multitudes. We are still making several mistakes in several aspects that we haven't started suffering the consequences.

As for now, forget about chadian deployment to lake chad or Nigeria. It is not happening anytime soon. Even if things settle down for now, who ever takes charge will want to keep his men around him.

Turn others misfortunes into our own fortunes.
The Chad scenario will most likely play out in either of two ways. Either the country becomes war torn from infighting between factions or the son of derby takes over swiftly and consolidates his power. Either way, Nigeria should be looking for how to benefit the most. If the country becomes war torn, make The terrorists see sense in moving over to that side to establish their caliphate as it will be easier for them.
The other way is to support derby's son..... Right now he will be needing all the allies he can get. Support him now and you may get his full commitment to the counterinsurgency later on.

The terrorists too may be getting new allies.

tutudesz:
The military is over stretched badly due to security issues (Banditry, militancy, ESN)
The troops should learn to destroy equipment when retreating, so they don't fall into enemy hands.

This here is another problematic thinking in itself. We shouldn't be thinking about quantity but quality. If the quality of deployment is good, it will achieve far more results than any meaningful numbers we can deploy. Each of the divisions should be able to run things independently in their region.

SamuelAnyawu:
Recovered how?

Learnt NAF destroyed most of the captured ammunitions. I don't know how true it is.

I believe the super camp strategy is good, but it is meaningless without a very effective strike force. It shouldn't even be about numbers. A few hundred men thoroughly trained and lavishly equipped and provided with everything they need to be effective will do wonders.
If it is true that the army is expecting Bigfoot MRAPs from China, they should be used in creating a strike force alongside the other platforms being expected.
In fact, the Armoured vehicles being rendered useless and destroyed are being destroyed because of the defensive strategy. There are tanks and artilleries and armoured vehicles in several towns that have not seen combat force years in Southern Borno, some parts of Yobe and adamawa that are just rusting away and by the time they are eventually needed, they won't be functional.

tutudesz:
I will keep asking this same question, Were was the air support

Air support came learnt they were dealt with afterwards sef(I don't know how true that is) but this guys calculate and learn a lot. From previous attacks, they know how long it takes from initiation of attacks to arrival of air support for many towns. That is why they attack some towns repeatedly and often. But still, all those knowledge are useless for them currently as they can't turn it into strategic gains. They are just wasting manpower/firepower and get very little in return, at times, they get nothing. I'm sure they have a limited pool of experienced fighters. No matter how much they are, most of them will pass on if they continue this way. But they don't really have a choice because to stop attacking the NA is to give the military time and space to plan effective offensives on them. If the military isn't forced to deploy men and assets to protect towns that are several kilometers apart, they will most likely be on offensive.

And then, we need to start discussing whether we should turn the military into one responsible for internal security or for regional force projection.
Maybe we should start looking into creating a national guard with an equivalent coastal guard. The policing system should also be restructured.

Honestly, apart from the fact there isn't a continuous offensive and they give weapons and resources to the terrorists whenever they allow the terrorists overrun their positions, the war has really changed from what it used to be but it will be very stupid for the army to limit themselves to that or defeating bokoharam alone.
They should be looking to modernizing and restructuring the army like their counterparts.

The plan should be ensuring that no other armed group last as long as bokoharam or become as powerful as that.

The recent pictures ISWAP released of the Dikwa attack showed three armoured vehicles burnt; 2 BTRs and 1 panhard. From the pictures of the BTRs, it is obvious they were burnt where they were parked. They were not even moved by the garrisoned troops. Let's assume the troops ran when the attack began, wouldn't it be wiser to flee in a vehicle that can move you faster while also protecting you.
It is either the troops were caught unaware or the vehicles were not operational. If it is the latter, maybe the army should recruit mechanics, give them basic combat trainings, send them on mechanics courses overseas and deploy sizable numbers to each of the super camps and outposts.

Tochex101:
How about local research and development.....
Abubakar has show it’s possible with Airframes.....why do we make excuses for incompetence....we have the tools, brains and manpower already

They've been attempting to do that but it will take years before we start seeing meaningful results. It will also require scarce resources(funds). Not too long ago, DICON was totally dead, NAMVC was also not existing.
I wish DICON could privatise the PPE and bullets sections and focus on greater things though.




What are the feedbacks on Ezegwu and Ara?

There are so many lessons Nigeria should have learnt from this war and I really hope the relevant agencies are indeed learning.

In peacetime, the military was ignored and even undermined when they should have been building capacity.

The whole country also underestimated the insurgents when they began........

There are so many other things we neglected and are now learning the hard way in the various sectors.

Thank God the airforce is now being prospective(JF-17s and other new platforms they are getting) , same with the navy(the navy has a huge plan and some of the acquisitions are already happening). As for the army, they are still making plans and acquisitions for the insurgency alone.

The cancer in every sector will take a lot of time and efforts to remove but if we keep improving this way, I believe things will get better.

Maintenance for military vehicles is required very often. It is very costly and very difficult especially when those who ordered it got little to no spares(learnt they now order reasonable quantities of spares during procurement). The airforce and Navy have been largely lucky because they have fewer platforms. This is part of the reason why the army should be the bigg portion of capital expenditures in every budget(at least for now). I said it earlier and will say it again, the Nigerian army has hundreds of fighting vehicles and associated weapons in various armory across the country but most are unserviceable and there is little remedy for some because the companies they are no longer in operation. Take the amphibious corps for example. The early presidents of the fourth republic almost killed the military and the result is what we have today.

It should be noted that the people who got the T-72s without spares also got the BTR-4 that the army had to eventually weld HMGs on top because they didn't buy the required ammunitions for it.

Maybe the army needs a man like S.B Abubakar that will focus on maintenance for some years.
If a quarter of NA's armored vehicles had been deployed to fight insurgency(with good coordination and strategy) the war would have been won since 2014/15 when the government first became slightly serious about the war.

In the end, it all comes down to lack of seriousness in Abuja. The stakeholders do not see a big deal with the situation of things. They are not affected so to them Nigeria is fine.

Mind you, the Bigfoot has really tried in the Northeast. It should be the standard MRAP for the army. That thing is crazily rugged.