The identity of the core engineer responsible for designing of the recently unveiled UAV drone has been reveal, and she is a woman...
Nkemdilim Anulika Ofodile posing beside the UAV
Nkemdilim Anulika Ofodile is the Nigeria AirForce aerospace engineer who designed “Tsaigumi”, Nigeria’s first indigenous operational UAV (Unmanned aerial vehicle.)
She has a PhD in Control Engineering from the University of Leicester
As part of the Federal Government efforts to tackle insecurity in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has unveiled a surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) produced locally by the Nigerian Air Force Institute of Technology.
The UAV codenamed TSAIGUMI is the first Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to be produced in the country and will be used to fight terrorism, armed banditry and other sophisticated crimes through enhanced air surveillance.
President Buhari unveiling the UAV
It could also be used for policing operations, disaster management, convoy protection, maritime patrol, pipeline and power line monitoring as well as mapping and border patrol duties.. In addition, it could be deployed for the protection of wildlife, weather forecast and telecast. Additionally, in the maritime domain, the Tsaigumi UAV could be used for search and rescue, coastal monitoring and patrol of Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
The UAV, which is capable of day and night operations, has an operational endurance in excess of 10 hours, a service ceiling of 15,000 feet and a mission radius of 100km. It has a maximum take-off weight of 95kg and its payload is an electro-optic/infra-red camera system.