The Pentagon, which is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense has informed the United States Congress of the sale of military planes and other weapons to Nigeria.
The Pentagon informed the U.S Congress on Monday, 28th of August, 2017 about the sale of 12 Super Tucano A-29 planes and other weapons worth $593 Million to Nigeria.
The weapons have long been sought after by the Nigerian administration in order to intensive its military efforts against the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northern part of the country.
The Super Tucano according to the manufacturer website features…”two .50″ machine guns (200 rounds each) in the wings. Five hard points under the wing and fuselage allow up to 1,500 kg of weapons for most configurations. The aircraft’s inboard stations, as well as its ventral one, are “wet” for external fuel tanks.
“In addition to its two internal machine guns, the Super Tucano can be configured with additional underwing armament, such as two 20mm gun pods or .50” machine guns, thereby significantly increasing its firepower for missions requiring air-to-ground saturation.
“Outboard stations allow the loading and firing of short-range air-air missiles of the AIM-9 class.
“All stations can be loaded with the Mk 81 or Mk 82 (conventional or equipped with guidance kits) bombs, SBAT-70/19 or LAU-68 rocket launchers.”