By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
No fewer than 20 Nigerian Air Force officers have been trained on cyber security and software development in India and the United States (US) to effectively operate the recently launched indigenous manufactured Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), dubbed Tsaigumi.
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar who made this known, explained that 12 of the officers were trained as software developers, while 8 were trained as cyber security experts.
Abubakar who was speaking recently at the 2018 Nigerian Air Force Branch Workshop, titled: “Positioning communications branch for effective, efficient and timely support of NAF operations” said the training became necessary to ensure effective service delivery with the ever-expanding ICT world.
He also revealed that NAF would be training more officials in ICTs which include software development, cyber security, communications, imagery analysis and maintenance of navigational aids facilities to enable the force build capacity in embedded systems and micro controllers-components of the auto pilot for the locally developedUnmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).
“Over the years, we had noticed a gradual decline in expertise, skills and professionalism of the branch personnel, especially with the disengagement from service of our highly trained officers.
“Sophisticated equipment are in use today and technological advancement is quite rapid. So the personnel must be abreast about the current developments, if they are to remain relevant,” he said.
