The United Arab Emirates has signed a contract worth Dh157 million ($42.7 million) to modernise the bulk of its fleet of Lockheed Martin C-130/L-100 tactical transports.
Awarded to the Mubadala Aerospace, Lockheed and Sikorsky joint venture AMMROC, the deal will replace the analogue cockpit instruments installed in six aircraft with digital systems.
To commence within the next eight months, the activity "will allow the UAE armed forces to extend the service life of the six C-130s", AMMROC says in a 19 February announcement made during the IDEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi.
Flightglobal's MiliCAS database records the UAE's air force as having a fleet of four C-130Hs and four commercial-variant L-100s in active use. These were delivered between 1976 and 1985, it reveals.
The decision to extend the service lives of some of its Hercules transports follows the UAE's recent investment in six Boeing C-17 strategic transports and three Airbus Military A330 multirole tanker transports.
Source: Flight International
