Somali federal government steps up to equip and modernize, the Somalia national Airforce (SNA)
The government led by President Hassan Sheikh tries to repair and re-equip the Somali national Army who has been under-equipped since the collapse of the central government in Somalia in 1991. Somalia is engaging a high-level compromise to obtain minimum two squadrons of the JF-17 “Thunder” fighter jets from Pakistan, this resembles a historic step toward re-equipping Somali’s long forgotten and neglected air forces that has been grounded since the collapse of the state in 1991.
The two governments have been discussing on big deal about the advanced Block III variant and form part of a multi-phased package valued at around $100 million, sources .
The deal would mark one of the largest efforts that the Somalia government signed since the 1974 and indeed will be categorized one of the Mogadishu’s greatest and most decisive defense contracts since the Cold War era, this will significantly be showing off one of a major shift in the Horn of Africa’s regional security and power configuration.
Somali and Pakistani officials have not publicly commented, but the negotiations cover far more than the aircraft themselves. They also include pilot training, weapons integration, and long-term maintenance and logistics.
During the Cold War, Somalia fielded one of the most formidable air forces in sub-Saharan Africa, flying Soviet MiG-21s and Western Hawker Hunters.
Decades of factional fighting after the fall of Siad Barre’s government and the chaos of the civil war that devastated that capability, of the Somali air forces and indeed the mighty Somali national army leaving airbases in ruins and aircraft reduced to scrap.
Today, the federal government relies entirely on foreign powers including Turkish forces for aerial bombardments, surveillance in its protracted fight against the Al-Shabaab Islamist insurgency in the country for the last two decades.
Edited by: Omar Ahmed