By SUMAILA OGBAJE

The military is to deploy no fewer than 800 well trained special forces into operational areas to combat myriads of security challenges facing the nation.

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, made this known on Wednesday in Abuja, at the Defence Training Conference 2025, which had as it’s with theme, “Performance Oriented Training and Trends in the Contemporary Operating Environment”.

He said: “Sometime next week, we will be graduating the first 800 special forces team trained to face the challenges we are undergoing, and the training is very comprehensive.

“We have realised that deploying them in pieces also creates that weakness that we see. We will be deploying them together, a force that stays together that will understand each other. Because from experience, a fighting force must be able to understand themselves,” he said.

The CDS said the conference was organised as a critical part of shared commitment to building a professional and combat-ready force that is well equipped to navigate the evolving operational landscape.

He said the mission was aimed to create a unified training system that is adaptable, technological-driven, economical, and mission driven.

This, according to him, entails expanding joint training programme and doctrinal reviews as well as performance simulation and work-giving among other innovations that will enhance professional operationalbility.

He added that the training would enhance collaboration, cooperation, and ‘jointness’ among the services of other relevant security agencies.

He said the contemporary challenges facing Nigeria cannot be handled by one service one agency.

“There is a need for collaboration and cooperation of all services working together.

“Looking at our operational operating environment, there is the evidence that the threats we face are increasingly complex, asymmetrical, and technology-guided issues.

“These threats range from a persistent scourge of insurgency and terrorism to the rise of cyber warfare, hybrid traits, and proliferation of advanced weaponry.

“We are also witnessing a rapid integration of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, advance surveillance technology and sophisticated electronic cyber warfare,” he said.

Musa emphasised the need for the military to understand the enemy it is dealing with in order to prepare for emerging challenges.

“The enemy we are dealing with is someone who has nothing to lose. He lives, he dies, his guilt goes for him.

” That is why we must be able to prepare our troops to understand the nature of the enemy and the threat they are facing.

“These threats will determine the foundamental shift on how we undertake training, ensuring that our personel are not just prepared for yesterday’s battle but are agile and adaptive enough to thrive in a dynamic operational environment,” he added.

Earlier, the Chief of Defence Training, Rear Adm. Ibrahim Shettima, said the aim of the conference was to foster synergy, enhance professionalism, and align training with the ever-evolving nature of conflict.

This, according to him, includes adapting to hybrid threats, embracing simulation-based training, strengthening joint units and emergency cooperation, as well as cultivating a generation of officers and men who are not just factually proficient, but internationally agile and efficiently resilient. (NAN)