Seeing the sophisticated missile defence systems Israel and Iran are deploying as well as their drone capabilities should embarrass every Nigerian. We cannot even wipe out a ragtag army of religious zealots called Boko Haram

Ayo Akinfe

[1] I have been following developments in the Middle East very closely, paying particular attention to the kind of defence shields being used. Future warfare will be dominated by drone strikes, so the kind of drones you can deploy and the sort of missile defence system you have to shield you are key

[2] Bear in mind that these are two medium income countries. Israel only has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $610bn and that of Iran is just $356bn. Were Nigeria run properly, our GDP should dwarf their combined totals. A nation of over 200m should have a GDP of at least $1trn at the very minimum

[3] In this photograph for instance, we are looking at the Khordad 15, Iran’s new surface-to-air missile battery. It uses locally made missiles that resemble the Hawk missiles that the US once sold to the shah and later delivered to the Islamic Republic of Iran during the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s

[4] To combat this, Israel deploys the Arrow System missile defence shield, specifically designed for medium-range ballistic missiles, intercepting them in the upper atmosphere

[5] Despite being the victim of crippling economic sanctions, Iran has been very innovative when it comes to military hardware. A large portion of its medium range air defence is vested in the Mersad, a low- to medium-range air defence system, which is a reverse engineered MIM-23 Hawk with some modifications

[6] According to the 2026 Global Firepower Index, Israel ranks 15th out of 145 countries with a Power Index score of 0.2707, while Iran is close behind at 16th with 0.3199

[7] While Nigeria is wholly dependent on imports to meet her military hardware needs, Iran has been successful in manufacturing land-attack and anti-ship cruise missiles, such as Soumar, Ya-Ali, the Quds variants, Hoveyzeh, Paveh and Ra'ad. At the top of the table, the Soumar has a range of 2,500km (1,553 miles)

[8] Israel's David's Sling anti-missile missile is particularly highly advanced. It features the Stunner missile with dual seekers to distinguish warheads from decoys, tackling threats like tactical ballistic missiles and rockets. It has a range of between 40km and 300km range

[9] In Nigeria, we naively think that we can go on to the international market and buy what weapons we want, in the quantities we want, at the time we want them. For me, any nation that is not self-reliant when it comes to defence equipment and military hardware deserves to be colonised

[10] Is there any reason why Nigeria is not manufacturing 1,000 drones a month? Just imagine what would have happened to Boko Haram, Iswap and those bandits if we were shelling them with 1,000 drone strikes every month

ayoakinfe@gmail.com