The Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Tukur Buratai, has commended the Artillery Corps for its immense contributions in routing Boko Haram and other criminal elements in the country.
Buratai made the commendation in a message to the closing ceremony of Exercise Vulcan Glow V at the Military Training Range in Kachia, Kaduna State.
He said that the corps “has keyed into combating security challenges and military operations’’ in the country by providing fire support for all Nigerian Army operations.
According to him, their support was key to the successes recorded in various missions carried out by the military.
“It is noteworthy that the Artillery Corps has not restricted itself to its conventional roles but had keyed into combating contemporary security challenges and military operations other than war.
“This was aptly brought out in the exercise setting which drew from the experience and lesson of ongoing operation in the north east and other operation theatres.’’ he said.
Buratai added: “I am delighted that this exercise is coming at a time when the nation and the military is at the threshold of completely routing out Boko Haram terrorists and other criminal elements from the nation territory.’’
He pledged that military would continue to receive appropriate training and logistics, as well as improved welfare to sustain their competence.
The COAS, who was represented by Maj.-Gen David Ahmadu, Chief of Training and Logistics, also commended the Artillery Corps for the maintenance of artillery assets despite limited resources.
The Army Chief expressed the hope that pragmatic and innovative lessons would be learnt from Vulcan Glow V exercise, being held after seven years, and pledged to make it a regular training exercise for the corps.
Earlier, the Commander, Nigerian Army Corps of Artillery, Maj.-Gen Muhammad Garba, said the exercise was to assess the combat proficiency of Artillery formations in offensive support planning and delivery.
Garba said it was also to assess capabilities and constraints in counter terrorists and counter insurgents operations, as well as troops’ field tactics and technical shoots.
The commander added that the exercise was designed in line with contemporary security challenges and current artillery deployment in various theatres of operation within Nigeria.
He however called for replacement of obsolete training aids, upgrade of all platforms and sustained maintenance of artillery assets.(NAN)
