The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has taken delivery of at least four of twelve ex-French Air Force Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet light attack and advanced jet trainer aircraft.
The delivery is part of an earlier contract awarded to SOFEMA by the Nigerian Air Force for the refurbishment and upgrade of the Alpha Jet fleet.
Under this agreement, six ex-French Air Force jets sourced by Sofema will be restored for operational use, while the rest will serve as spare parts.
Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Hasan Abubakar, says in last December that all 12 aircraft are ready for shipping. It is anticipated that six will be restored to operable status, with the remaining six used as spares to support the Alpha Jet fleet.
Alpha jets are an important part of the Nigerian Air Force Air power, they are capable of carrying a variety of weapons, including bombs, rockets, and missiles. It is also equipped with a gun pod that can be used for close air support missions.
The Nigerian Air Force acquired its fleet of Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet aircraft in the early 1980s. The first 24 Alpha Jets were delivered in 1982, and they were used for both training and light attack missions. In 2011, four of the Alpha Jets were upgraded with new avionics and weapons systems.
Alpha jets based in Yola and Maiduguri are flying combat missions against bandits, terrorists, and insurgents. In 2013, the Nigerian Air Force began to take measures to refurbish 13 of its Alpha jets. Two were sent to Niamey, Niger to support a multi-national peacekeeping force there. But one crashed fatally in an accident that May of that year.
Four additional unarmed Alpha jets were acquired in 2015 by the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration from the United States. In 2020, nine more Alpha Jets were reactivated after being mothballed for several years. As of 2023, the Nigerian Air Force has 11 Alpha Jets in service.
In July 2023, Sofema, which specialises in reconditioned military equipment, began studying a plan to rehabilitate French Alpha Jets for the Nigerian Air Force.
Sofema is already supplying spare parts to five ageing aircraft that are still being used by the Nigerian Air force, and recently visited a French air force base to select four or five more Alpha Jets they could recondition and sell to the NAF. Sofema is thus determined to quickly double the NAF’s fleet of Alpha Jets within six months to one year. Sofema also won the contract to supply Martin Baker MK10 ejection seats in five NAF Alpha jets.
In September 2024, Nigeria, Egypt entered pilot training, and Alpha jet maintenance agreement. The commitment was made on 4 September 2024, when General El-Gawad hosted Air Marshal Abubakar at his office in Cairo, Egypt during the the Egypt International Air Show at El-Alamein International Airport.
Meanwhile, Nigeria is set to receive twenty-four M-346 Master aircraft from Italian aircraft maker Leonardo. The deal is reported to be worth an estimated €1.2 billion and will see the Italian jets replacing or complementing the aging Dassault Alpha jet A/E in use by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).
