Military airframer Lockheed Martin has delivered the final production example of the MC-130J Commando II special operations transport to the US Air Force (USAF).
Aircraft number 5994 was turned over to its end user – the 58th Special Operations Wing – at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico on 16 January. The four-engined turboprop rolled off Lockheed’s production line in Marietta, Georgia in December, then was ferried to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio for post-production upgrades at the USAF’s Rapid Development Integration Facility.
The delivery concludes a 14-year production run for the MC-130J, which is derived from Lockheed’s C-130J Hercules tactical transport.
During that time, US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) says the type accrued more than 2,000h of flight time across 400 missions.
“AFSOC’s receipt of the final MC-130J culminates an over-fifteen-year effort to recapitalise and re-baseline the special operations C-130 fleet,” says Colonel T Justin Bronder, programme executive officer for fixed-wing aircraft at US Special Operations Command.
“This delivery marks both the end of this effort and the beginning of a new era,” he adds. “We will continue to relentlessly evolve AFSOC’s C-130s to ensure these aircraft possesses capabilities to advance our future force.”
The air force uses MC-130Js for a variety of missions, including aerial refuelling, infiltration and extraction of special operations forces, and to supply forward-deployed troops.
Notably, the 58th Special Operations Wing (SOW) that received the final Commando II is the same unit that fielded the first production model MC-130J in 2011. That aircraft remains in active service with the 58th today.
“The 58th SOW is proud to own both the youngest and the oldest MC-130Js in the air force and looks forward to flying on 5994 soon,” the wing says.
Fleets data from aviation analytics firm Cirium indicates that globally there are 60 MC-130Js in service with the USAF and four MC-130Ks flying for South Korea.
The USAF and Special Operations Command have used the versatile transport to test new operational concepts, such as a distributed-basing plan known as Agile Combat Employment.
In 2023, air force commandos parachuted from an MC-130J into a remote stretch of roadway in the state of Wyoming. The troops then guided the transport in for a landing on the tarmac highway, after which multiple Boeing MH-6M Little Bird helicopters were deployed from the MC-130J’s cargo hold.
Special Operations Command also spent several years exploring the possibility of adapting the MC-130J for amphibious operations using a set of external pontoons that could be fixed to the outer fuselage. Sierra Nevada Corporation was engaged to study the feasibility of the concept.
The effort was ultimately abandoned in 2024, with Bronder at the time saying the amphibious modification kit was deemed feasible from a technical perspective but was not a budgetary priority for the Pentagon.
