Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has successfully test-fired another locally weaponised Alpha Jet aircraft, acquired from overseas, without weapon delivery capability.

Director of Airforce Public Relations, Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, said the latest feat makes it the third Alpha Jet aircraft to be so reconfigured and weaponised locally.

Famuyiwa said the NAF, at the heat of the Boko Haram insurgency, had acquired three Alpha Jet aircraft from private individuals in the United States without combat capability.

According to him, subsequent efforts to use foreign vendors to re-militarize the aircraft proved abortive for several reasons, saying the challenge led the NAF to look inward for solutions locally, by assembling a team of engineers and technicians designated NAF ‘Technical Response Team (TRT)’, comprising serving and retired NAF personnel and civilians.

He said the team had since its inauguration, achieved tremendous successes that have greatly enhanced the operational capability of the NAF, especially with respect to the ongoing fight against the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, as well as saving huge foreign exchange for the nation.