The Nigerian Air Force has procured Thales FZ90/FZ71 70mm unguided rockets in a €10 million contract with French defence supplier Sofema, further strengthening its close air support capabilities in the fight against armed groups across the north. 

The deal, disclosed by Defense News Nigeria, adds a fresh batch of precision-adjacent ordnance to the NAF’s growing inventory of light attack munitions.

The FZ90/FZ71 rocket system, designed and produced by Thales’s Belgium-based rocket division, pairs the FZ90 rocket motor with the FZ71 high-explosive warhead to deliver close air support and area suppression against ground targets.

The rockets will arm the NAF’s fleet of A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft, which form the backbone of Nigeria’s counter-insurgency operations against Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province, and other armed groups destabilising the north-east and north-west.

Sofema has long served as a key conduit between French defence manufacturers and the Nigerian military, having previously supplied Martin Baker ejection seats for the NAF’s Alpha Jet fleet and facilitated the acquisition of refurbished Alpha Jets from French air force stock.

The latest rocket deal builds on that relationship, giving the NAF another line of unguided precision ordnance to complement the guided bombs and rockets it has separately sourced from the United States for the A-29 fleet.

The Super Tucano has become central to Nigeria’s air campaign against insurgents since its induction in 2021, under a Foreign Military Sales programme valued at nearly $500 million, the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.

Adding the FZ90/FZ71 rockets to the aircraft’s arsenal is likely to extend the NAF’s operational tempo in ongoing strikes against armed camps and logistics routes used by militant and criminal groups in the north.

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