As Boko Haram now deploys sophisticated drones to fight Nigerian military, I am calling the Service Chiefs (Army, Navy and Air Force) to seek help from the Nigerian technology community. For men who despise education to have adopted drones indicates a new parallel challenge has arisen. The Army needs to convene immediately a military-tech focused conference with local elements where our technologists would come to strategize how to win this war. This is a pivotal moment now that the Army has confirmed what many had mooted that Boko Haram has above-optimal intelligence, after looking at the precision it has battled our warriors recently.
A sudden rise in Boko Haram attacks over the last three months has forced the Nigerian military to fine-tune its counter-insurgency operations in the war-ravaged North-east, Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai said on Wednesday.
The army chief also said the terrorists now use drones and foreign fighters in their operations.
Mr Buratai described the exploits of the jihadists as “daring,” saying it threatened to erode the previously recorded achievements in the counter-terrorism efforts.
Boko Haram has carried out successful, back-to-back attacks on Nigerian military bases since July, leaving heavy personnel and equipment losses in their wake.
Mr Buratai lamented the recent attack on Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele, Borno State, on November 18. At least 118 soldiers, includingthe battalion’s commander, were killed in the attack, PREMIUM TIMES learnt from top military sources, who also confirmed at least 153 missing in action. Mr Buratai, however, says only 23 soldiers were killed in the Metele attack.
The army chief said the attacks have put the military’s resolve to test, but assured the insurgency would be uprooted before long.
We need to improve our intelligence – the tech community in the nation can assist our military on making that possible. Yes, this is now transitioning into a tech war with Boko Haram using drones. The Army needs to seek help from the tech community which has truly advanced in many ways, and can provide local capabilities necessary to help the nation overcome the challenge.
Update:Let me quote this post where Microsoft just won a major contract from the U.S. military to help soldiers in battle.
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Microsoft is readying its HoloLens augmented reality tech for combat. The company just won a $480 million military contract with the U.S. government to bring AR headset tech into the weapons repertoire of American soldiers.
The two-year contract may result in follow-on orders of more than 100,000 headsets according to documentation describing the bidding process. One of the contract’s tag lines for the AR tech seems to be its ability to enable “25 bloodless battles before the 1st battle,” suggesting that actual combat training is going to be an essential aspect of the AR headset capabilities.
[Please do not see this post as political: I know many see all from politics. This is simply an intellectual conversation on a very serious national issue.]
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Many things about the war against Boko Haram in the north east remain fuzzy; but what is now clear is that those terrorists aren’t depleting; they are very much alive, as potent and deadly as you can imagine.
And we cannot live in denials forever, or wishing the war away; a change in strategy is needed, and not the normal, traditional military strategizing and re-strategezing, an infusion and incorporation of something unconventional this time.
If Boko Haram whose training regiment is questionable could deploy technology, with the level of sophistication and precision on the intended targets; I do not expect anything less from the Nigerian military and its allies.
Again, it’s difficult to discuss the successes and failures of this prolonged war campaign without dabbling into politics; of course there are many things that cannot be said here, and some of them remain unexplained.
There are conflicting issues and competing interests here and there, but we can no longer run this campaign like a secret cult, a national buy in and ownership is not negotiable anymore.
The casualties are too many, both the accounted and unaccounted ones; time to bring in everyone who has something to contribute, in order to end this carnage.
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