Nigerian Air Force Technicians Complete M-346FA Maintenance Training in Italy as First Jets Await Delivery

Thirteen Nigerian Air Force technicians have completed a maintenance course on the Leonardo M-346FA at the manufacturer’s Venegono Superiore plant in Italy, part of a push to build a domestic workforce capable of keeping Nigeria’s new jets flying without permanent reliance on contractor support. The training wraps up as the first three M-346FAs sit in Italy, their delivery schedule still unconfirmed.

Photo: An Aermacchi M-346 Master prototype on display at the Volandia museum, Italy. Nigeria’s M-346FA is the fighter-attack variant of this Leonardo trainer family. Credit: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The course, reported by Military Africa and citing the News Agency of Nigeria, ran in two phases. Classroom instruction on airframe and propulsion systems took place in Turin, followed by hands-on work at Venegono Superiore in the Varese area of northern Italy — the same site where Leonardo builds the M-346 family — that ended on 25 September. A final phase on engine run procedures, involving two officers and four airmen and airwomen out of the original 13-strong group, was due to finish on 25 October.

Training ahead of the jets themselves

Nigeria’s M-346FA order covers 24 aircraft worth roughly €1.2 billion, split into four tranches of six for two Nigerian Air Force squadrons. The first three airframes completed factory acceptance testing at Venegono Superiore between 29 June and 9 July, a milestone the NAF announced in late July. Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke called it “another strategic step in strengthening the Nigerian Air Force’s operational capability.”

What the training timeline does not resolve is when the jets themselves will actually reach Nigeria. An earlier estimate had pointed to delivery of the first three aircraft in early 2025, with the rest following through 2026; that schedule slipped, and Military Africa’s reporting notes only that the completed factory testing makes the outlook “firmer” without giving a ferry-flight date. For a programme this size, training the maintenance workforce before the aircraft arrive is standard practice — it means ground crews are ready the moment the jets touch down, rather than learning on the job after delivery.

Part of a wider Italian footprint

The M-346FA course is one strand of a broader Nigeria-Italy aviation relationship. Three Leonardo AW109 Trekker helicopters were accepted in Lagos on 6 October, following a separate six-week Trekker maintenance course completed by other NAF technicians in Italy earlier this year. Leonardo’s support package for the M-346FA fleet reportedly runs for at least 25 years, and Nigerian Air Force leadership has floated setting up a Leonardo maintenance hub inside Nigeria itself — which would reduce the need to send technicians abroad for every future course.

Why it matters for Africa

The M-346FA is meant to close a capability gap in the Nigerian Air Force between its A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft and its JF-17 Thunder fighters, giving pilots a dedicated lead-in jet trainer with genuine light-attack weapons options. But the real test for African air forces buying advanced Western or Western-licensed aircraft is rarely the acquisition itself — it is sustainment. Nigeria’s decision to send technicians to Italy before the jets arrive, rather than after, reflects lessons the NAF and other African operators have learned the hard way from fleets grounded for want of spares or trained crews. If the mooted in-country maintenance hub materialises, it would also mark one of the more substantial technology-transfer commitments Leonardo has made on the continent, beyond the aircraft sale itself.

Sources

• Military Africa — training timeline, quotes and programme details
• News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) — original reporting on factory acceptance testing completion