Procurement: Hercules Moves East

Archives

April 2, 2009: The U.S. is providing Poland with five C-130E "Hercules" transports, and the first one was recently delivered. The last of them will arrive next year. Each was refurbished at a cost of $20 million, and should be good for 12,000 more hours in the air (about 20 years worth of service, with peacetime use rates).

The C-130E is an extended range version of the 1960s era C-130B. Currently, nearly all the 491 C-130Es built are still flying. A U.S. Air Force C-130E passed the 30,000 hours (in the air) mark late last year, the first time this has happened. That C-130 had undergone seven refurbishments since it entered service in the 1960s.

Nearly 2,400 C-130s have been built. The most common version is the C-130H. It has a range of 8,368 kilometers, a top speed of 601 kilometers per hour, and can carry up to 18 tons of cargo, 92 troops, or 64 paratroopers. The latest version, the C-130J, has a top speed of 644 kilometers, 40 percent more range than the C-130H, and can carry 20 tons of cargo. The C-130 has been in service for over half a century, and is used by over 50 countries.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close