2016
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On Tuesday, April 5, 2016, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) retired its final CC-130E Hercules after 51 years of service. Making the short flight from CFB Trenton, Ont., where it has served for many years, it arrived at Rockcliffe airport in Ottawa at its new permanent home at Canada Aviation and Space Museum. The Lockheed Hercules has served the RCAF since the acquisition of four C-130Bs in 1960. The three surviving C-130Bs were sold to the Colombian government in 1969. The success of the B models led to the acquisition of a large fleet of brand new 24 C-130E models, starting in 1964. The donated plane has had a long and exemplary career. The longest…
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A day after the Montana congressional delegation sent letters expressing their disappointment in the relocation of Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System units from North Carolina to Nevada, the National Guard Bureau confirmed the decision and the move. The MAFFS that were located with the 145th Airlift Wing of the North Carolina Air National Guard will now move to the 152nd Airlift Wing of the Nevada National Guard. MAFFS are specialized equipment owned by the U.S. Forest Service that can be installed in C-130 cargo plans to drop retardant on wildfires. The North Carolina unit is converting from C-130s to C-17s and that prompted the National Gua…
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CAE has signed a deal with the Australian Department of Defence Capability and Acquisition Sustainment Group (CASG) to develop a training device for Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) C-130J Hercules loadmaster aircrew, the company announced on 6 April. According to CAE, the company will be the prime contractor responsible for the overall design, development and delivery of the C-130J Fuselage Trainer (FuT), which will be designed to simulate the rear cabin section of a full-sized C-130J aircraft. The training device will be used to deliver high-fidelity training to loadmaster personnel - who are responsible for the loading and unloading of cargo on the a…
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Nevada will soon have one of four groups equipped with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems to help battle large-scale wildland fires in the region, according to the National Guard Bureau. The Nevada Air National Guard’s 152nd Airlift Wing is set to begin outfitting its C-130 aircraft with the system for firefighting missions nationwide. The decision brings firefighting capabilities to the unit, which sits in the largest national forest in the lower 48 states, Tech. Sgt. Emerson Marcus, of the Nevada Air National Guard’s 152nd Airlift Wing, said in a news release on Friday. The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest has been prone to massive fires in rec…
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The US Air Force has awarded StandardAero a contract estimated $43 million to upgrade Rolls-Royce T56-A-15 engines powering its fleet of C-130H aircraft. The upgrade involves the overhaul and repair of engine compressor and turbine modules and the installation of the Series 3.5 engine upgrade hardware. The upgrade will be performed at StandardAero’s engine MRO facility located at Port San Antonio, Texas and will run through 2018. This marks the second T56 contract award of 2016 for StandardAero San Antonio. In January, the U.S. Navy awarded StandardAero with a one- year contract for the maintenance, repair, and overhaul of the Navy’s fleet of T56 engines…
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Dennys Plessas, Vice President Business Initiatives at Lockheed Martin, has reason to feel better about what the American aerospace giant is getting from its South African maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) agent than it is from those holding the purse strings of the national Defence budget. He and a group of high-powered colleagues are this week again in South Africa keeping a weather eye on local Lockheed interests – primarily 28 Squadron of the SA Air Force (SAAF) and Denel Aviation. He told defenceWeb there are currently 120 of the company’s best known product – the C-130 Hercules – in service on the African continent with only Tunisia, at this stage, oper…
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Air Force Special Operations Command plans to fly small, tactical off-board drones from its AC-130 gunships in combat for the first time later this year, which will give crews better views of the battlefield. Tactical off-board sensing, or TOBS, is intended to improve AFSOC’s targeting capabilities in poor weather or other challenging conditions. Gunship crews spend a lot of time “looking at tops of clouds … [thinking], ‘I wish the weather would clear. Damn, I’d like to shoot what’s down there but damn I can’t see it,’” said Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, commander of AFSOC, at a Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict conference hosted by the National Defense Indus…
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The Vice-president of the American Lockheed Martin’s Dennys Plessas said the Egypt will receive two C-130Js Super Hercules military transport aircraft. Aircraft to be delivered to Egypt in 2019. Egypt It will be the seventeenth international customer for the C-130J military transport aircraft. The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. The C-130J is a comprehensive update of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, with new engines, flight deck, and other systems. The Hercules family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. Source: http://defence-blog.com/news/egypt…
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Fifty Airmen from the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing and two LC-130 ski-equipped aircraft are in the High Arctic supporting the Canadian Forces annual Operation Nunalivut exercise in Canada's Nunavut Territory.' It is the third year that the New York Airmen, based at Stratton Air National Guard Base near Schenectady, N.Y., have participated in the Canadian military exercise. The New York Air National Guard team is operating out of three locations during the exercise – Resolute Bay; Thule Air Base, Greenland; and Little Cornwallis Island which is about 50 miles Northwest of Resolute. The Canadian exercise began on April 1 and wraps up on April…
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A base wide contest was held to pick the tail flash design that represented the rich heritage of the airmen of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard and the people of Puerto Rico. Out of the seven unique and artistic tail flash designs submitted for consideration, the design selected to represent the 156th Airlift Wing was created by Staff Sgt. Luis A. Morales, aircrew flight equipment technician of the 156th Operation Group. A six member committee of varying ranks from different sections of the base evaluated the seven designs and selected Morales' design based on its ability to portray the unique spirit of the PRANG's history, heritage and culture. As the senior rankin…
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Seven female monk seals were successfully transported in a U.S. Coast Guard airplane from the Marine Mammal Center in Kona to Kalaeloa on Thursday. The operation, which represents a budding partnership between the Marine Mammal Center, NOAA and the Coast Guard, is a game changer for streamlining rehabilitation needs and release initiatives for endangered species. David Schofield, of NOAA, told media at Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point that the seal transfer was a success. "The seals slept the whole time,” he quipped. “We were kind of more stressed than the seals were." And with good reason: The unprecedented transport list featured…
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PANAGARH (Burdwan) The 87 Squadron of Indian Air Force (IAF) will formally become operational at Air Force Station Arjan Singh in Panagarh on May 5 in the presence of IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha. This was announced by Air Marshal C Hari Kumar, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Air Command, at the air base on Friday. The 87 Squadron will be the second one in the IAF to comprise C-130J Super Hercules aircraft. The first squadron is based at Hindon near Delhi. "The additional C-130J aircraft will be coming in from April, 2017. All construction work, including hangers, will be completed by the end of this month and the squadron will become operationa…
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Israel is close to starting negotiations linked to a planned deal to boost its fleet of Lockheed Martin C-130J tactical transports, sources in the nation have indicated. Three of the airlifters – named "Samson" in Israeli service – are already in operational use at Nevatim air base. Another two will arrive this year under with a further example to follow later. The air force previously outlined a requirement to introduce additional examples on top of those six. Meanwhile, the operational experience gained by the service in operating the new-generation Hercules since April 2014 will lead to an increase in the number of Israeli-developed systems integrated…
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On 18 April, the Lockheed Martin KC-130H-382-C82D HERCULES reg. TC-69 (c/n 4814 ) arrived at its new home base, I Brigada Aérea of El Palomar, from L-3 Platform Integration in Waco, TX/USA. Rockwell Collins’ Flight2 avionics system has been selected for the Argentine Air Force (AAF) C-130 upgrade program, where work began in late 2014 with prime contractor L-3 Platform Integration to install equipment on five aircraft. Included in the avionics upgrade is a full glass cockpit with new primary flight displays, Required Navigation Performance/Area Navigation flight management system with High Altitude Release Point/Computed Air Release Point precision air drop softw…
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Robins Air Force Base could soon earn the title of Center of Excellence for C-130 maintenance. Congressman Austin Scott of the 8th District says the House Armed Services Committee included language in the National Defense Acquisition Act that would protect the work done by Air Force depots, particularly on the C-130. Scott says the original version of the bill included language that "attacked the depots" and questioned their limited capacity to handle the workload and suggested moving the work out of the depots. He says he fought to remove that language. Instead, the approved version of the bill asks the Air Force to provide a report on the capacity at a…
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Airmen with the Montana Air National Guard came together on Monday to honor one of their own that will soon retire: a C-130 cargo plane. The C-130 Hercules transport aircraft bears the tail number 73-1598. (c/n 4573) When the plane was being built in 1973 at a manufacturing plant in Marietta, Georgia, President Richard Nixon was in office, the popular television series "M*A*S*H" was in production, and the price of a first-class stamp was eight cents. This C-130 has been stationed Little Rock Air Force Base (Arkansas), Clark Air Base (Philippines) Travis AFB (California, Dyess AFB (Texas), and finally made its way to join the Montana Air Nation…
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Maintaining the C-130J Super Hercules fleet here became a more efficient process for the 403rd Maintenance Squadron Isochronal Inspection Dock. The ISO Dock received new maintenance stands April 14. The first aircraft to undergo an inspection using the new stands is enabling maintainers to test out their new equipment, said Master Sgt. Steven Dahl, 403rd MXS flight chief. “This aircraft is riddled with heavy maintenance tasks such as removal of the number one engine change, left outboard flap, and all four main landing gear; which is enabling us to completely test the new stands in almost every possible maintenance scenario we will cross all at …
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The 61st AS distinguished itself as the only C-130J squadron with at least nine crews, consisting of 85 percent of their work force, deployed throughout the year. The squadron, also known as the Green Hornets, safely executed 2,605 tactical airlift sorties, transported 9 million tons of cargo and 19,000 passengers in support of seven combatant commanders. “We were able to prepare ourselves for deployments despite the shortage in aircraft that we had available; for a great part of 2015 we had not even half of our allocated aircraft,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Westby, 61st AS commander. “We cultivated the partnerships with other wings on base in order for us to …
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A U.S. Air Force crew ferried a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from the Lockheed Martin facility here on April 29. This aircraft is assigned to the 61st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas. The 61st, which has operated C-130s since 1956, is part of Air Mobility Command's 19th Airlift Wing. 14-5792 c/n 5791 Source: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2016/may/keep-on-rockin-littlerockafbreceivesadditionalc130j.html View full article
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Kolkata, May 5 (IANS) The Panagarh airbase in West Bengal, renamed Air Force Station Arjan Singh, become operational on Thursday as the second hub for the C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft. Two C-130J Super Hercules from the Hindan-based 'Veiled Viper' squadron, flew in to the airbase while a batch of six aircraft would be handed over to Indian Air Force by US aviation major Lockheed Martin beginning early next year. Beginning his two day visit to the Eastern Air Command, IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, reviewed the new hangar facility at the airbase which was renamed in the honor of the country's only living five-star officer, Marshal of the Air Fo…
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Air Force officials have been saying they would inactivate the 440th Airlift Wing for more than two years. On Friday, they officially notified Congress that they would move forward on shuttering Fort Bragg's lone airlift wing. According to Rep. Renee Ellmers' office, Air Force leaders said they began efforts to move the wing's 12 C-130H aircraft on Friday, the end of a 90-day waiting period required by law. While the news was expected, Ellmers said it was still hard to stomach, citing the Air Force's inability to fully support Army airborne forces at Fort Bragg, the home to the nation's airborne and quick reaction forces. …
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On 18 April, the Lockheed Martin KC-130H-382-C82D HERCULES reg. TC-69 (c/n 4814 ) arrived at its new home base, I Brigada Aérea of El Palomar, from L-3 Platform Integration in Waco, TX/USA. Rockwell Collins’ Flight2 avionics system has been selected for the Argentine Air Force (AAF) C-130 upgrade program, where work began in late 2014 with prime contractor L-3 Platform Integration to install equipment on five aircraft. Included in the avionics upgrade is a full glass cockpit with new primary flight displays, Required Navigation Performance/Area Navigation flight management system with High Altitude Release Point/Computed Air Release Point precision air drop softw…
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Robins Air Force Base could soon earn the title of Center of Excellence for C-130 maintenance. Congressman Austin Scott of the 8th District says the House Armed Services Committee included language in the National Defense Acquisition Act that would protect the work done by Air Force depots, particularly on the C-130. Scott says the original version of the bill included language that "attacked the depots" and questioned their limited capacity to handle the workload and suggested moving the work out of the depots. He says he fought to remove that language. Instead, the approved version of the bill asks the Air Force to provide a report on the capacity at a…
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For more than 40 years, people living in Niagara Falls and other parts of Niagara County could see C-130 Hercules aircraft in the skies on a regular basis. That came to an end Monday, as four of the planes took off for an overseas assignment for the last time. The C-130s have been a mainstay at the local installation, serving the nation in numerous foreign and domestic assignments, utilizing pilots, navigators, loadmasters, flight engineers and medical evacuation personnel. "We've been involved in every major and minor conflict that the world has been involved with, from Panama to Bosnia to Kosovo," said Lt. Col. Mark Ables, who has been flying C-130s s…
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Air Force Research Laboratory officials have said they plan to have a program of record for air-fired laser weapons in place by 2023. Ground testing of a laser weapon called the High Energy Laser, or HEL, was slated to take place last year at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., service officials said. The High Energy Laser test is being conducted by the Air Force Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. The first airborne tests are expected to take place by 2021, Air Force officials have said. The developmental efforts are focused on increasing the power, precision and guidance of existing laser weapon applications with the hope of mo…
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