The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has made substantial progress in its efforts at refurbishing the disused fire trucks in its bases all over the country. So far, 17 out of the 24 fire trucks earmarked for refurbishment have been successfully repaired and handed over to the respective units. The latest set of 2 refurbished fire trucks was handed over to 107 Air Maritime Group Benin on 5 October 2017. It is noteworthy that most of the fire trucks being refurbished had been parked for over 20 years as 'Beyond Economic Repairs' . Furthermore, the refurbishment is being undertaken by a local firm, utilizing Nigerian engineers and mostly locally sourced materials and spares.
With the refurbishment of the fire trucks, the NAF is now able to more independently provide fire cover for aircraft operations at its bases thereby enhancing operational safety. As part of its corporate social responsibility, the NAF is also now better positioned to provide complementary services with regards to fire fighting in the host communities. The local firm, on 7 October 2017, commenced the refurbishment of another set of 2 fire trucks at 041 Communications Depot, NAF Base Shasha in Lagos.
The leadership of the NAF, being mindful of the enormous cost of procuring new fire trucks and the scarce resources in the nation, decided to explore the option of locally refurbishing the fire trucks. The foregoing decision by the NAF leadership is in tandem with one of the key drivers of the vision of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar. That key driver is ‘Robust logistics support and maitenance culture to sustain platforms and equipment serviceability’. Below are pictures of the fire trucks before and after refurbishment as well as short video clips showing the refurbished fire trucks in operation.
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