Nigeria Expects 10 Attack Helicopters and New UAVs, Defence Minister Says, as EU Prepares €20m Support
Nigeria is expecting delivery of ten attack helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and “other major enablers”, Defence Minister General Christopher Musa (retd) said in Abuja on 17 October 2026. He spoke at a meeting with the European Union’s ambassador that focused on €20 million in EU assistance for the Armed Forces of Nigeria under the European Peace Facility (EPF).
What the ministry said
The figures come from a statement issued on Saturday by Leah Katung-Babatunde, the minister’s special assistant on media, and reported by the News Agency of Nigeria and Punch. Musa received Gautier Mignot, the EU ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, at Ship House, the defence ministry headquarters. According to the statement, the talks covered defence cooperation and the review of security cooperation between Nigeria and the EU, and “centred on modalities” for €20 million in bilateral assistance to the armed forces under the EPF. Mignot said an EU technical delegation would visit Abuja in November to agree delivery details, and invited Musa to a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels later in the year.
Describing the security situation, Musa said kidnapping on major highways and attacks on isolated communities were continuing. “In this regard, Nigeria is expecting the delivery of 10 attack helicopters, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and other major enablers,” he said.
What the statement does not say
The minister did not name the helicopter types, manufacturers or delivery dates, or say whether the ten aircraft come from existing orders or new contracts. He gave no number or type for the UAVs. The EU has not said what the €20 million will buy; the November visit is meant to settle those details. The package is an agreed intention, not a delivery.
Nigeria’s known helicopter orders
Nigeria has several helicopter programmes under way. It is buying 12 Bell AH-1Z attack helicopters from the United States, and DefenceMENA reported this month that Bell has started building the first aircraft. It has taken delivery of Turkish Aerospace T129 ATAK helicopters; DefenceMENA has examined how many have arrived and where they are deployed. Military Africa reports that the air force received three Leonardo AW109 Trekker helicopters on 15 September from an order for ten, with the other seven due by the end of 2026. The AW109 is a light twin-engine multi-role helicopter, not a dedicated attack type. The minister’s statement does not allow the “ten attack helicopters” to be matched to any of these programmes.
Regional context
Musa also said the shrinking of Lake Chad, on which more than 50 million people depend, was a potential source of instability. He said denying militants their holding areas on the lake’s islands was a key operational priority for the Multinational Joint Task Force. Helicopters and drones are central to that effort; DefenceMENA has traced how Nigeria assembled its Turkish and Chinese drone fleet. With aircraft arriving from American, Turkish and Italian suppliers, maintenance, spares and crew training across several fleets are as important to availability as the number of airframes on order.
The EU’s European Peace Facility in Africa
The EPF is the EU’s off-budget instrument for funding military assistance to partner countries. Last month the EU approved a second EPF package for Cabo Verde, worth €60 million.
Sources
- News Agency of Nigeria: EU to deliver €20m defence support to Nigerian armed forces (17 October 2026)
- Punch: EU to provide €20m defence support to Nigeria — Minister; Vanguard: Nigeria awaits 10 attack helicopters, UAVs — Defence Minister
- Military Africa: NAF accepts two locally reassembled Airbus H125 helicopters (17 October 2026)
