US aerospace and defence giant Lockheed Martin believes that its latest-generation C-130J Hercules (referred to as the Super Hercules by the company) can meet three different South African defence needs, identified by the country’s 2014 Defence Review. These missions are airlift, air-to-air refuelling (AAR) and maritime patrol.

“For South Africa, it meets and exceeds these gaps identified in the Defence Review,” states Lockheed Martin VP: New Business: Air Mobility & Maritime Missions Ray Fajay. “We’ve had some general discussions with the South African Air Force (SAAF) about the C-130J. My impression is that they are intrigued with what we’re presenting to them. One aircraft type, three missions and then some, rather than having to buy three aircraft types.”

The South African Air Force currently operates a squadron of nine significantly upgraded but originally first-generation C-130BZ Hercules (the Z signifies South Africa). “Unfortunately, we all get older. The -BZs are over 50 years old,” he points out. “And they break. Parts are hard to find. Frankly, there’s now a new era, there’s new technology. We believe that the C-130J is the right answer for South Africa. [The SAAF] has proved it by operating the -BZs for many years.”

South Africa is not the only African operator of first- or second-generation C-130s. (First-generation marks were the C-130A, -B and -E – few remain in service anywhere; the second generation is the still widely used C-130H; there are also lots of specialised and adapted marks of the Hercules.) “We have over one hundred and twenty C-130s on the continent today,” he reports. “We are is discussions with a number of different countries on the continent about the C-130J. The first customer in Africa to buy the C-130J was Tunisia. We had hoped South Africa would be the first! We now hope it’ll be the first in sub-Saharan Africa. What customers tell us is that the best replacement for a C-130 is the C-130, so we believe that the market here is robust. There are great opportunities for the C-130J in Africa.

“The C-130 programme is the longest- running military aviation production line in history,” he highlights. “Last year, we celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of manufacturing the aircraft. We still have a robust programme for the US and overseas customers. The key to success with the C-130 programme is to have the support around the world to maintain and support this aircraft.” There are C-130 service centres in North and South America, Europe, South-East Asia, Australia and Africa. The African service centre is Denel Aviation, part of South Africa’s Denel defence industrial group.

The C-130J is a significant reworking of the Hercules design, although it looks pretty much the same externally (the main obvious differences are the six-bladed propellors in place of the four-bladed airscrews on the earlier versions). It is well established in operational service worldwide with 19 air arms (including the US Air Force, the US Marine Corps, the US Coast Guard, the UK Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Indian Air Force). So far, a total of 367 C-130Js have been ordered and the operational fleet has accumulated more than 1.3-million flight hours. No fewer than 17 variants of the C-130J are now in service, including the HC-130J maritime surveillance and search and rescue aircraft, KC-130J AAR tankers, EC-130J electronic and psychological warfare aircraft, MC-130J special operations aircraft and the stretched C-130J-30 version.

With completely new avionics, a totally redesigned cockpit, completely new and much more powerful engines, refined aerodynamics and other improvements, the C-130J has a much better performance than the earlier versions of the Hercules. In comparison to the C-130H (which is slightly more capable than the SAAF’s C-130BZs), the C-130J flies higher, faster and further, is more agile and can climb more rapidly (very important in combat zones). While the C-130H can reach a maximum altitude of 24 500 ft, the C-130J can go to 29 000 ft. While it takes the -H 40 minutes to reach 24 500 ft, the time required by the -J to reach the same altitude is 22 minutes. The -J can open its rear ramp and drop cargo, day or night, in good or poor weather, with great precision, at speeds of up to 250 knots (nautical miles –nm– per hour). While an SAAF -BZ, flying from Air Force Base Waterkloof (just south of Pretoria) has a range of 805 nm, a -J would have a range of 1 340 nm, carrying a payload of 15 000 kg and on a hot day.