The Nigerian Air Force, NAF, Regiment Training Centre (RTC), has graduated 151 Regiment personnel of NAF’s Critical Asset Protection Squad.
Those trained consisted of 10 officers and 141 airmen and airwome.
NAF’s spokesman, Air Commodore Ayodele Famuyiwa, said this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja.
The training is in furtherance of NAF’s sustained efforts at building the capacity of personnel for force protection and safeguarding critical national assets.
Speaking during the graduation on Friday in Kaduna, the Chief of Air Staff, CAS, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, urged the graduands to maintain high level of discipline and professionalism.
Amao also urged them “to consolidate on the knowledge gained during the Critical Asset Protection Squad Course 4/2023, to improve their skills for the benefit of the country.”
He commended the Air Officer Commanding, Ground Training Command (AOC-GTC), the Commandant, staff, and instructors of RTC for the painstaking training of the fourth batch.
Amao said the first and second courses were conducted with the assistance of the Israeli Four Troop Security Company.
“There is no doubt that the RTC has done a great job in moulding and equipping the graduating students with requisites skills, knowledge, and the right attitude needed for efficient conduct of base defense and force protection responsibilities,” he said.
The Chief of Army Staff said NAF would continue to adopt new processes in line with the changing security environment and his vision.
He said his vision is “to enhance and sustain critical airpower capabilities required for joint force employment in pursuit of national security imperatives.”
The Chief of Air Staff was represented by the Chief of Training and Operations, AVM Aliyu Bello.
On his part, the AOC-GTC, AVM Sola Olatunde thanked the CAS for providing the enabling environment in terms of policy direction, resources and other enablers to effectively run the centre.
Olatunde said that “the training institutions under the GTC now have added capacity to train allied students of other nations.”
He said the development was another testimony to the CAS’s tenacity for purposeful training and capacity development across board.
According to him, the command has instituted curriculum review, infrastructural upgrades, and instructor enhancements to make all NAF institutions regionally and globally attractive.
The course included rigorous physical training, aimed at equipping the trainees with tactics, techniques and procedures to function effectively and adapt to the dynamics of changing irregular warfare environment.
NAN/ Mercy Chukwudiebere
