quickly delivered for action in Vietnam. The AC-130 eventually evolved through a series of modifications, with increasingly heavy weapons and sophisticated sensors. Particularly important was the ASD-5 “Black Crow,” a radio- frequency direction finder developed in great secrecy to detect emissions from the old-fashioned ignition coils of Russian-made trucks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Twenty-nine C-130 gunships served in Vietnam, with the 14th Air Commando (later Special Operations) Wing; six were lost to hostile ground fire.
There were many other variants of the Hercules developed during this period. They ranged from airborne tanker versions to mother ships for the highly classified “Buffalo Hunter” reconnaissance drones that were used extensively over Southeast Asia and Communist China. All this success had an obvious influence on the commercial and military export markets, and the Hercules has been a consistent favorite. Dozens of nations have bought hundreds of models (mostly C-130Hs) of the Hercules for both military and commercial purposes. One of the oddest export sales was one to Libya, before the embargo against Colonel Quadaffi took effect in 1973. When that action took place, a number of C-130H models had yet to be delivered. As a result, over two dozen years later, those Libyan Herks still sit baking in the Georgia sun, on a corner of the ramp in Marietta.
The late 1970s were a time of high adventure for the C-130, as various nations used the stubby transport for a new mission: Hostage Rescue. On July 4th, 1976, three C-130Hs of the Israeli Air Force, along with other support aircraft, raided Entebbe Airport in Uganda, rescuing nearly two hundred hostages that had been taken by Palestinian terrorists while aboard an Air France Airbus. A strike force of crack Israeli paratroops combat-assaulted into the airfield, retook the hostages, and then returned to Israel after suffering just a single casualty — Jonathan Netanyahu, the brother of the current prime minister of that country. After Entebbe, several other nations gave hostage rescue a try using C-130s as the transportation. When an Egyptian airliner was taken by terrorists to Nicosia Airport in Cyprus, the Egyptian government sent in their own commando team. While the assault was a bloody mess, most of the hostages survived. Not all the rescue missions that the C-130 went out on were successful, though, and the U.S. wound up being the loser.
On April 24th, 1980, the U.S. tried to rescue fifty-nine hostages taken when the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, was overrun in 1979. The plan relied on the Herk’s ability to land on short, unprepared runways. Flying low to evade Iranian radar, a force of C-130 tankers joined up with a small force of helicopters at “Desert One,” an isolated landing zone in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, technical problems with the helicopters caused the mission to be scrubbed before the assault on the embassy compound could be mounted. Then, while refueling on the ground during the extraction, an MH-53D helicopter collided with one of the C-130 tankers, igniting an uncontrollable fire. Eight Americans died and five more were injured, and the humiliation destroyed the Administration of President Carter.
The ashes of Desert One, as well as command problems during Operation Urgent Fury (the 1983 invasion of Grenada), led to a re-evaluation of U.S. special operations and joint command arrangements that paid off handsomely in the 1989 invasion of Panama and in 1990 and 1991 in the Gulf War. In every one of these operations, the C-130 played a key role, from dropping and delivering troops in Grenada and Panama, to hauling the cargo and troops that sustained the air campaign and “Hail Mary Play” during Desert Storm. Of particular note were the dozens of C-130s from nations other than the U.S. that supported coalition operations during Desert Shield/Storm. By having chosen the C-130 as their standard airlifter, the nations of the coalition were able to contribute a valuable resource without stressing the spares or maintenance pipeline of CENTAF.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the C-130 has been the backbone of the USAF theater mobility force, and has done an outstanding job. Unfortunately, the basic 1950s technology of the Herk makes the aircraft increasingly expensive to operate and maintain. In particular, while aircrew and mechanics were readily available and easy to train when the Herk was designed, today they represent a major share of an aircraft’s total life-cycle cost. Also, the C-130 lugs around a lot of weight that would not be there if it were being designed from scratch today. Design features such as computer network backbones and composite aircraft structures technologies had not even been envisioned when the YC-130A was on the Lockheed drawing boards. So the way was clear for a new generation of Hercules: the C-130J.
As early as May 1988, the Commander of the Military Airlift Command (now the Air Mobility Command, AMC) outlined requirements for a next-generation C-130. Unfortunately, the projected development costs were more than the Air Force budget would bear, so in December 1991 Lockheed decided to fund the development of the new Hercules variant, known as the C-130J, with the company’s own money. Have no doubt, though, that Lockheed Martin is going to make a load of money on this bird! The British Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) were the launch customers, and the U.S. military has also rapidly jumped onboard as well. Most notable has been the rapid commitment by the USMC for a new force of over a dozen KC-130 tankers. Also, the USAF has firm orders for two prototypes, options for 5 development aircraft, and a requirement for at least 150 units to replace aging C-130Es as they reach the end of their life cycle.
Lockheed Martin is in the enviable position of having something in the C-130J that people badly want, and will pay good money to get. Interest in this new bird resembles nothing so much as a runaway freight train, as the Lockheed Martin sales team is working hard to keep up with the inquiries from around the world. Already the RAF, RAAF, and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) have firm orders or options for a total of 65 aircraft. This is a lot for an airplane that has not even competed testing and certification!
You might be wondering just why all this excitement is being generated over a modified version of an already forty-year-old transport aircraft. It’s a good question, actually, and deserves an answer. The most obvious one is that this is an airplane that needs to be built. As early as the 1970s, the USAF was considering the possibility of building a jet-powered replacement for the C-130. Under the Advanced Medium Short Takeoff and Landing Transport (AMST) program, two pairs of prototype aircraft were produced (the Boeing YC-14 and the McDonnell Douglas YC-15), but they never went into production. Both pairs of aircraft did great and wonderful things in testing, but not enough to justify producing them instead of additional C-130Hs. In fact, the H-model Hercules has been in production for over thirty years and the only thing that will replace it now is another C-130! It will be a greatly improved Herky, though, and amazingly, will not cost any more than the C-130H model that it will replace. The core philosophy behind the new design is something that a Lockheed Martin engineer told me on a visit to the Marietta, Georgia, plant. He said, “The only reason we touched anything on the C-130J was if it improved performance and reduced cost!”
Externally, the most noticeable differences in the C-130J are the propellers. In place of the four-bladed props, with flat blades and squared-off tips, there are six-bladed props with graceful compound curvature that tells an engineer that the most advanced computer-aided design went into their shaping. Actually, they look a lot like the blades of a modern submarine propeller. Made of advanced composite materials, these blades not only are more efficient than those on the — H, but also have a greatly reduced radar signature.
The new Allison AE2100D3 engines (the same basic engine that will power the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport) have digital electronic controls, and provide 29 percent more power than the engines on the C-130H with an 18 percent improvement in fuel efficiency. Since fuel is one of the biggest costs of operating an aircraft, that 18 percent is a whopping number to cash-starved air forces around the world. Economy aside, though, the real improvement of the new engines is their ability to sustain their power in high altitude and temperature conditions. For aircrews, this means shorter takeoffs with larger payloads, which is the name of the game in the theater air transport business. Also, the new engines are virtually smokeless, though the noise footprint is about the same. Finally, the plumbing of the fuel system has been simplified, with provisions being provided for quick modification to a tanker configuration with the addition of fuel bladders.
Most of the improvements to the C-130J are on the inside, beginning with a new two-man flight deck. In effect, the navigator and flight engineer have been replaced by software and electronics. The pilot and copilot sit in front of four multi-function color flat-panel screens, which replace dozens of “steam-gauge” instruments. These screens are programmable displays that present the specific information needed for any phase of flight or emergency. These can include primary flight displays, weather radar data, digital ground maps, navigation and SKE displays, or malfunction warnings. Like fighter pilots, the C-130 flight crew also have “heads-up displays” that project key information into the field of view, allowing the pilots to focus their attention on the flight path outside the window. There is provision for a third seat on the flight deck, with space, weight, and power allocated for a systems operator workstation, which might be required on special-mission aircraft.
The basic flight control systems of the Hercules, though, have not been altered. The old-style control yoke has been left unchanged, and even the classic nose gear steering wheel has been left untouched. What has changed are some of the supporting systems, especially those having to do with the new engines and display
