Lockheed C-130 Hercules C-130J Super Hercules

The C-130J Super Hercules is the most thorough rework the Hercules has ever received: it keeps the classic silhouette but replaces the engines, propellers, flight deck and most of the systems. Lockheed (later Lockheed Martin) developed it in the 1990s, and it is now the only Hercules version still in production, on the Marietta, Georgia line. This page covers the standard-length C-130J; the stretched C-130J-30 and the specialised derivatives (KC-130J, HC-130J, MC-130J, WC-130J, EC-130J, AC-130J) have their own pages.

The programme was launched on 16 December 1994 by an order from the Royal Air Force, after a months-long UK government stalemate over whether to buy the new transport in Europe or the United States. The purchase was paired with a commitment to buy 40 to 50 of the future European FLA (later the A400M), which reduced the size of the C-130J order: the RAF bought 25 aircraft for a total fixed price of US$1.6 billion, with first deliveries originally scheduled for November 1996. To speed up military and civil sales, Lockheed Martin also sought FAA civil certification, which the RAF did not need but later contracts, including those of the USAF and the Royal Australian Air Force, required.

The first flight of the C-130J programme took place on 5 April 1996. Development was troubled: software integration glitches added three months, then undiscovered stall characteristics, caused by the extra engine power and the move from four to six propeller blades, added a further nine months. Lockheed Martin spent five months trying 20 aerodynamic fixes without success and finally fitted a stick pusher that lowers the nose if the pilot ignores the stall warning. In late 1997 another issue appeared: the AE 2100s, more powerful and fuel-efficient than the Allison T56s, no longer produced enough bleed air to keep the tail warm, so the de-icing system on the vertical stabilizer had to be extended, costing five more months. The initial US$300 million development budget was far exceeded: by May 1998 over US$900 million had been spent, and by the end of that year the company owed the RAF about US$50 million in late-delivery penalties.

FAA type certification came in September 1998 after 4,000 hours of flight testing. Deliveries began in 1999: in RAF service the standard C-130J became the Hercules C5 (the stretched aircraft being the Hercules C4). According to the USAF fact sheet, the C-130J entered the US Air Force inventory in February 1999, where it has replaced C-130Es and some high-time C-130Hs.

Outwardly it resembles the classic Hercules, but it is powered by four Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 turboprops driving six-bladed Dowty R391 composite scimitar propellers with tips swept by 35 degrees. Power per engine is given as 4,637 shp (3,458 kW) by Wikipedia and as 4,700 hp by the USAF fact sheet. The flight deck is digital, with colour multifunction liquid-crystal displays, head-up displays for each pilot, dual inertial navigation and GPS; the minimum crew drops to three (two pilots and a loadmaster), with no navigator or flight engineer, against five on the C-130E/H. A black rubber de-icing boot at the base of the fin, a legacy of the icing problem, sets it apart visually. Compared with the C-130E/H, Wikipedia credits it with 40% more range, 21% higher maximum speed and 41% shorter takeoff distance. It can be fitted with the enhanced cargo handling system, a computerised loadmaster station that controls the winch and the flip-floor.

At 29.79 m long, with a 40.41 m wingspan and a height of 11.84 m, it weighs 34,274 kg empty and up to 74,393 kg at takeoff according to the USAF. The hold is 12.5 m long, 3.05 m wide and 2.74 m high and takes 92 passengers, 64 paratroopers, six 463L pallets or 72 litters; maximum allowable payload is 42,000 lb (19,090 kg). It reaches 670 km/h at 6,706 m, cruises at 644 km/h, covers about 3,300 km with a 15,422 kg normal payload and has a ceiling of 8,615 m with 19,090 kg aboard. Its flyaway cost was US$62 million in 2008; the USAF puts unit cost at US$75.5 million (FY 2017 then-year dollars).

In December 2004 a budget decision signed by Paul Wolfowitz sought to end Air Force C-130J procurement, citing among other things heavy-equipment airdrop limits, cold-weather issues and rising costs; Donald Rumsfeld reversed it on 10 May 2005, as cancelling the 62 aircraft already ordered would have cost about US$2 billion in termination fees. In August 2004 Lockheed Martin counted 179 C-130Js of all types on order and 113 delivered; by March 2022 the J family had reached 500 deliveries to 26 operators in 22 countries. Orders labelled simply as C-130J include four for Qatar (October 2008), two for Oman added in August 2010 to a single C-130J-30, two French aircraft received in 2017-2018 alongside two KC-130Js, and US approval in January 2022 for a sale of 12 to Egypt. In service it has flown over Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya (2011), and since July 2010 it has fought wildfires with the 146th Airlift Wing's MAFFS II system.