California Guard, Nigerian state partners improve air-to-ground integration

VICENZA, Italy – California National Guard members worked alongside Armed Forces of Nigeria partners during an engagement in Abuja, Nigeria, Aug. 15-22, integrating the California Military Department into the AFN's ongoing air-to-ground integration efforts.

By directly addressing AGI integration, this collaboration made substantial progress on the California Guard’s top priority with Nigeria, its partner in the National Guard’s State Partnership Program since 2006.

The primary objectives of this meeting involved assessing current capability gaps in integrating Nigeria’s joint terminal attack controllers — commonly referred to as “JTACs” — into combat operations, analyzing existing force generation and training pipelines, and developing a mutually beneficial, long-term partnership roadmap, as well as future training pathways.

JTACs operate on front lines in wartime scenarios, directing combat aircraft to provide close-air support and other offensive air operations. This collaborative event was a significant step forward in strengthening interoperability between the California Guard and the AFN.

“The engagement built working relationships among the California Guard, U.S. Embassy Abuja, the Nigerian military’s Air Warfare and Doctrine Centre, and Nigerian Air Force personnel while establishing shared training priorities,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Daniel Kempf, commander of the 146th Logistics Readiness Squadron, 146th Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard. “We also set conditions for joint curriculum development, virtual instruction, in-person training and evaluator development, which will pave the way for further development and engagements,” Kempf said.

Nigeria’s Air Warfare and Doctrine Centre is the primary training institution responsible for certifying JTACs across its military. Once certified, the controllers report to active theater commands to support tactical operations. The AWDC oversees the standardization of training and continuous evaluation of its graduates, while also ensuring that those graduates maintain their skills.

“Working together, we identified JTAC training, sustainment and ground-force integration gaps, and we produced a roadmap for building a more capable, sustainable program,” Kempf said. “That program will also support safer operations and stronger civilian-harm mitigation, improving the AFN’s abilities as a regional security provider and a partner to the California National Guard.”

According to Kempf, the AFN intends to train and maintain a mission-appropriate level of certified JTACs for each of its active combat theaters to ensure a healthy operational rotation, while lowering risks faced by friendly forces and local populations. As of August 2026, the AWDC graduated two training cohorts toward meeting this long-term goal.

“While the California State Partnership Program can’t directly provide or procure operational military hardware, our capabilities are perfectly aligned to support training, curriculum development and institutional capacity building,” Kempf said. “We’ve already identified and agreed on key areas to drive long-term improvements.”

U.S. Africa Command leads “Flintlock” and “African Lion,” which are major, multinational training exercises that take place annually in Africa, focusing on improving security and cooperation with partner nations. Kempf explained that future training that further integrates the California Guard and AWDC personnel into regional exercise frameworks would involve these events, among others.

“Additional potential events include virtual ground force commander instruction, practical training in Maiduguri, Nigeria, advanced JTAC-evaluator training, as well as Nigerian JTAC and air-to-ground-integration refresher exchanges in California,” Kempf said.

Planning these training opportunities not only helps further develop working relationships between partners, they also prepare reaction forces for unexpected tasks, which can involve wartime scenarios or missions involving disaster response.

“In peacetime, we concentrate on training, doctrine, airspace management and civilian-harm mitigation,” Kempf said. “In combat or contingency operations, the focus in these engagements can improve air-to-ground coordination and reduce risks to friendly forces and civilians.”

Along with augmenting Nigerian readiness, Kempf emphasized how the engagement benefited the Golden State's warfighting trainers.

“This visit strengthened our own readiness by providing practical experience assessing a partner force’s doctrine, training pipeline, equipment limitations and security constraints,” Kempf said. “Continued engagements will provide further valuable context for the California Guard to analyze tactics, techniques and procedures currently used in active combat environments in the region.”

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.