African militaries eye lighter, cheaper drones

Ethiopian soldiers attend a drone piloting training program at an aviation school in Beijing. [Xing Guangli, AFP]

Aerial warfare in Africa is trending lighter and nimbler -- and increasingly single-use.

Hulking, fixed-wing military drones were prominently on display at a continent-wide military conference underway in Nigeria this week.

But at a half-dozen expo booths, vendors were also keen to show off their smaller, plastic cousins -- almost identical to drones used by backyard hobbyists, minus the ordnance.

More recently, it has been documented in West Africa's Sahel region among jihadist groups known to rig their own DIY devices.

The Nigerian military is also in on the trend, as it augments its traditional surveillance and attack drones with cheaper, even disposable, tech.

"They have this in their backpacks, they go for missions and they're able to strike where necessary," said Muhammad Umar, chief technology officer at Nigerian firm EIB Group, which manufactures drones locally and has contracts with the military.

Economically, Umar said, it can make much more sense to send out a small drone that may or may not come back than risk "a half-million-dollar asset" every time.

Turkey's Bayraktar TB2, with a 12-metre (39-foot) wingspan, has become the most popular traditional model among African militaries.

Experts have told AFP that a system of three typically retails for about $6 million -- a steal compared to fighter jets or helicopters.

But Nigerian firm Epsilon sells suicide drones for as low as 1.5 million naira, or just under $1,000, before the cost of explosives.

"You need speed, you need agility," said Oluwagbenga Karimu, a systems autonomy specialist at the company, which also had a booth set up at the African defence chiefs conference in Abuja, which hosted officers from Libya to Malawi to Ethiopia.