The Air Force Institute of Technology traces itself to the years after the civil war, when the air force needed its own technicians. It was founded in 1977 as the NAF Technical and Supply School, with support from the German aircraft manufacturer Dornier. In 1979 it became the Technical Training Wing and then the NAF Technical Training Group; by 2000 it was 320 Technical Training Group.

On 12 March 2008 it took its present name. Wikipedia gives its address as Nigerian Air Force Base, Kawo, Kaduna. defenceWeb reported in 2017 that the Air Force Research and Development Centre at Kaduna was developing unmanned aerial vehicles and other systems, and the air force’s own history credits AFIT with building national capacity in aviation technology and UAVs.

Kaduna also hosts the air force’s Air Traffic Services Training Centre, commanded by an Air Vice Marshal. On 17 September 2026 it opened a course for cabin crew, which the air force presented as part of strengthening aviation safety, a sign that the base trains far more than pilots: air traffic controllers, technicians, ground crew and now aircrew in the cabin.

Basic flying training is done at 401 Flying Training School. On 8 August 2017 the air force inducted five Super Mushshak primary trainers at Kaduna, the first half of a batch of ten bought from Pakistan, with digital glass cockpits. The Minister of Defence, Mansur Mohammed Dan Ali, represented Acting President Yemi Osinbajo; the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, was present, and 16 pilots graduated.

The air force said it was the first time in more than 30 years that its cadets from the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna had completed flying training before being commissioned. defenceWeb noted that the school had received training assistance from the British Military Advisory Training Team.

In July 2021 defenceWeb reported ten students in basic transport training at 401 Flying Training School, while twelve were in basic fighter training at 403 Flying Training School in Kano.

Several of the air force’s worst days have Kaduna in them, though not always the base at Kawo. On 26 September 1992 a C-130H, NAF911, bound for Kaduna crashed into the Ejigbo canal three minutes after leaving Lagos when three engines failed; Wikipedia’s crash article counts 159 dead, its Lagos airport article 158. Most of those aboard were military officers, among them officers from Ghana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Uganda, and it remains, in Wikipedia’s words, the deadliest crash of a C-130 Hercules. On 3 May 2012 a single-seat F-7NI crashed near “Kaduna Airport”, defenceWeb reported, without saying which; the pilot ejected.

On 21 May 2021 a Beechcraft King Air 350i, NAF203, flying from Abuja crashed near Kaduna International Airport, killing all eleven aboard, among them the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru. Wikipedia lists the cause as under investigation. The international airport itself was attacked by armed bandits on 26 March 2022, when a security guard was killed.

On 15 October 2019 the air force winged its first female combat helicopter pilot, Tolulope Arotile, on the same day as its first female fighter pilot, according to Wikipedia. In 2020 she was serving at the air force base in Kaduna State.

On 14 July 2020 she died of head injuries on the base. The air force spokesman, Ibikunle Daramola, said she had been hit by the car of a former Air Force Secondary School classmate who was trying to greet her, that witnesses were present and that no autopsy was done because her family did not ask for one. The account did not satisfy everyone: Wikipedia records that some Nigerians called the death suspicious, and the case was transferred to the Nigeria Police Force on 24 July 2020.