ORDERS FOR 13 C-130J Hercules 2s from the US services are expected by Lockheed Martin following Congressional approval of the fiscal year 1997 defence budget. The Congress also added 12 aircraft to the Department of Defense's request for just one next-generation Hercules.
While budget adjustments could affect the number of aircraft purchased, the current plan is for five C-130Js for the US Air Force, four for the Air National Guard and four for the US Marine Corps.
The majority of the aircraft are intended for special missions, which benefit most from the increased performance provided by the -J's new Allison AE2100 turboprops, Lockheed Martin says.
Of the five USAF aircraft, three are expected to be weather-reconnaissance WC-130s and one, a psychological-operations EC-130, while one is likely to completed as an airborne command-centre. The ANG Js will be standard transports, but the USMC's aircraft will be completed as KC-130 tankers.
Lockheed Martin says that, while the USAF has determined that its active-duty C-130Es will not need replacement until 2004, the Marines' KC-130Fs are the oldest Hercules in the US inventory, and its 40 aircraft need to be replaced. The -J can be operated at higher speeds and altitudes as a tanker, and can be used to offload more fuel than the KC-130, the company says.
The ANG order, meanwhile, is a continuation of a long-running Congressional programme to re-equip the reserve forces. The forces had been supplied with new C-130Hs, but from FY1997 they will begin to be equipped with C-130Js. About 100 reserve C-130Es still remain to be replaced.
Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, has received a request for information on the C-130J from Italy, which plans to buy the aircraft, while Norway and Saudi Arabia have "-expressed interest".
Source: Flight International
