Nigeria manufactures the first Africa indigenous drone

It was indeed and overwhelming event in the history of Africa most populous nation as the Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan on the 17^th of December 2013 unveiled Nigeria first ever indigenous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) commonly known as drone that was built solely by the Nigerian Air force (NAF).

The whole idea of building an UAV began in 2005 when the Presidential Committee on Maritime Safety and Security (PCMSS) acquired three aero stars UAV but the effort was later frustrated due to numerous problems on ground at that time.

Following the series of problems on ground at that time, the Federal government then decided to hand over the UAV to the NAF which successfully handled the project and came up today with what is to be seen as the ever African manufactured drone.

You can read China joins Western world in drone manufacturing

The drone was codenamed GULMA which means gossip in one of the country’s major languages; this was as a result of the drone being used to carry out surveillance and intelligence gathering. The drone was said to be manufactured at the cost of $3 million.

This was coming in the heel of about 2 months ago when China successfully carried out it test flight of their own manufactured drone, but this time around it is no longer Asian or western nation but coming from the African continent.

No doubt that with the unveiling ceremony, Nigeria has did Nigerians proud by joining the fleet of country that owns drone, and it doesn’t matter how sophisticated this particular drone will be or tends to be, what matters most here is that the NAF has shown great determination and doggedness in building this UAV.