- Source: Tsaigumi
The Tsaigumi UAV is an unmanned aerial vehicle designed and used by the Nigerian Air Force. It is one of the first UAVs indigenously developed in Nigeria.
The Tsaigumi was inducted in the Air Force in furtherance of the Nigerian military's ongoing drive to produce and incorporate made-in-Nigeria military weapons.
History
In September 2015, the Nigerian Air Force stated that they were planning to build a new UAV. Later, in 2016, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Portuguese company UAVision. The word "Tsaigumi" means surveillance in the Hausa language of Nigeria. The designer was reported to be Nkemdilim Anulika Ofodile, an aerospace engineer in the Nigerian Air Force. The Tsaigumi UAV's airframe was built by the 431 Engineering Group of the Nigerian Air Force, with the avionics and telemetry equipment were developed by UAVision of Portugal.
After the drone was inducted into military service as Nigeria's first ever locally built military unmanned aerial vehicle, former President Goodluck Jonathan claimed that the Tsaigumi is actually the same drone as the GULMA, developed by Nigeria in 2013 under his presidency , and hence not the first domestic Nigerian UAV. Air Vice Marshall Olatokunbo Adesanya disputed this, claiming that the GULMA drone "was not operational", and that the Tsaigumi was thus the first completed Nigerian UAV. Also, in 2014, the PR & Information Director of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas had said that it was not possible for the Air Force to deploy the GULMA due to difficulties in production. The GULMA is likely to have served as a prototype for the design of Tsaigumi.
Design
It is a twin-boom UAV spotting a pusher propeller configuration.
For take-off and landing, the Tsaigumi UAV is fitted with a tri-cycle landing gears which has two main wheels and a steerable front wheel attached to the nose of the vehicle.
Its maximum take-off weight is 95 kg.
= General characteristics
=Crew: 3 Operator (Mission Commander, Pilot, Navigator)
Length: 8.6 m (28 ft)
Wingspan: 6.8 m (22 ft)
Max takeoff weight: 95 kg
Powerplant: 128 kW (172 hp)
= Performance
=Maximum speed: 250 km/h (160 mph)
Mission radius: 100 km (62 mi)
Range: 1,000 km (620 mi)
Endurance: 10 hours
Service ceiling: 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
Operational altitude: 5,000 ft (1,500 m)
= Armament
=None
= Avionics
=Day/Night EO FLIR
GPS
INS
Service history
The Tsaigumi was formally inducted into service on February 15, 2018. According to Air Vice Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya, the Tsaigumi would be used monitoring of disasters, law enforcement, weather forecasting, protecting wildlife, and monitoring Nigeria's exclusive economic zone as well as naval search and rescue operations and maritime patrol.
