By Mohammad Tijjani
Kaduna – The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in Kaduna is developing a surveillance system to add value to the nation’s security architecture, its Commandant, AVM Isiyaka Bukar, has said.
Bukar said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna that the surveillance system was a research work by students of the institution, which the Nigeria Air Force ordered for its expansion and development by the institute.
The commandant also said that the school was involved in other projects including developing a drone and fabrication of aircraft parts.
“The first research made is the unmanned aerial vehicle, called Amebo, which was demonstrated and commissioned by former President Goodluck Jonathan. Work is still going on to make it add value to the defence of this country.
“In addition, researches by AFIT students have been utilised in the field including aircraft maintenance. Presently, we have two or three projects we are handling for the Nigeria Air Force.’’
Bukar stressed that the institute’s main task was developing necessary human and material capacity to enhance the capacity of NAF and reduce service cost.
He said that the focus of the institute now was on reverse engineering to adopt existing facilities to local needs.
“Most of the aircraft we have are old, and that makes it very difficult to get spare parts for these aircraft easily on the shelf, so we have to do with what we haven and that means we have to make them serviceable on behalf of NAF.
“We are therefore involved mostly in repairs and fabrication of some parts in our workshops.
“We are making plans to have latest manufacturing equipment to improve our capacity to manufacture spare parts; our focus is to get fully involved in reverse engineering.
“Most countries that don’t have the resources, what they do is to take a component, modify and redesign it to serve them.
“If we get these facilities, definitely they will help us in reverse engineering and help modify our existing components.
“You know aviation is a very expensive venture and even if you have the money, once the facilities are not available you have to improvise,’’ the commandant said.
Bukar however said that AFIT require more funding to enable it set up workshops and acquire modern facilities for fabrication and manufacturing of aircraft parts.