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Young Officers from the Nigerian Air Force School of Engineers have designed and locally manufactured Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, commonly referred to as “drones”.
In 2008, Nigerian student officers underwent postgraduate studies in aerospace engineering at Cranfield University, UK. They chose UAV development as their research project and thus developed the Amebo UAV as part of their project. This drone had neither autopilot nor Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability.
In 2013, the NAF (Nigerian Air Force) developed an experimental UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), codenamed Gulma, which was NAF’s first locally produced UAV. This drone (UAV) was a technology demonstrator used to gather performance data on UAV systems. It could fly non-stop for about four (4) hours at 5,000 feet or 1,524 meters (1.5 km).
On February 15, 2018, NAF unveiled the Tsaigumi UAV which is the first locally produced operational UAV. Indeed, the data gathered from the Gulma prototype were used to improve the design of the Tsaigumi operational UAV which was manufactured at the Air Force Research and Development Centre at NAF Base Kaduna. Nonetheless, Nigerian engineers collaborated with Portuguese firm UAVision to produce the moulds, among others.
The Tsaigumi UAV is capable of day and night operations and has an operational endurance of ten (10) hours, a service ceiling of 15,000 feet or 4,572 meters (4.5 km) and a mission radius of 100 km.
Source: africanmilitaryblog.com (made in Nigeria drones)