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U.K. May Retain C-130Ks Longer Over Upgrade Delay
Apr. 16, 2012 - 10:52AM |
LONDON — Britain’s Royal Air Force may delay taking its C-130K Hercules special forces fleet out of service for at least a year while it waits for a delayed upgrade of the newer J variant.
The last of the Hercules K fleet was to exit service by the end of the year, but sources said that’s unlikely to happen.
The availability of a vital upgrade to allow the J version to fully take on the special forces role will not be ready until at least 2013.
One Ministry of Defence source said the RAF could decide to retain maybe five or six of the K fleet for special forces work while getting rid of the rest.
A spokeswoman for the MoD declined to comment, beyond saying the department was considering a variety of equipment options as part of the annual planning process for the financial year 2012-13.
Retaining the Lockheed Martin-built Ks is one of several permutations being examined as part of Planning Round 2012 deliberations to maintain the balance of RAF air transport capabilities.
Pressure is mounting on air bridge assets ahead of the withdrawal of combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The delay comes just two months after the head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Steven Dalton, admitted the service was looking at giving a temporary reprieve to another aging British air transport asset, the Tristar, also built by Lockheed.
The RAF has operated the Hercules K since the late 1960s. In recent years the aircraft’s primary role has been to support special forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Retirements and losses have winnowed K fleet numbers to eight from the original 66 acquired from Lockheed Martin.
The plan was to install Block 7 on the 25-strong J fleet starting last September, allowing the remaining older aircraft to withdraw from service this year.
Known as Block 7.0, the Hercules upgrade provides the systems architecture to allow the specialist equipment carried by special forces aircraft to be installed.
The block upgrade is part of an international program led by the U.S. Air Force.
A spokesman for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics said the upgrade will “enter Phase II flight tests this summer. We are awaiting a schedule for [installation] from the USAF.”
As far back as 2008, the National Audit Office, the government spending watchdog, warned that any delay to the introduction of Block 7 installation beyond 2012 may “create a serious gap in capability” for specialist operations.
Repeated Delays
Announcement of the extension would be at least the third time the MoD has delayed pensioning off the venerable K aircraft.
The original date was 2008; that was extended to 2010 and then 2012.
The aircraft were meant to be replaced by Airbus Military’s A400M airlifter, but that program has been delayed until 2015.
The British have 22 A400Ms on order.
By 2022, they plan to have a fixed-wing transport capability of two aircraft types — the Airbus and the C-17.
There are, though, two strategic defense reviews planned between now and then, and industry executives wonder whether the multirole tactical flexibility of the smaller Hercules may see some of the aircraft retained beyond its 2022 out-of-service date.
Briefing reporters in London on April 11 on developments involving new maritime patrol and low-cost versions of the J, Jim Grant, a vice president of new business at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics,
said he was “optimistic that the special-mission capabilities inherent in the J will prove itself to the extent the RAF desires to up-rate the aircraft [to use it] many years beyond the current program’s retirement date.”
Industry sources here said the contractor team led by Marshall Aerospace, which supports the RAF’s entire fleet through the Hercules Integrated Operational Support contract, has already been put on notice that further work on the K is a possibility.
A spokeswoman for Marshall said the Cambridge-based company had not heard anything official about future Hercules support other than what was in the Conservative-led coalition government’s strategic defense and security review of 2010.
That review mandated withdrawing the J fleet from service in 2022, a decade earlier than planned.
Running the Hercules K until at least the end of 2013 may help bolster air transport assets as the British ramp up their withdrawal effort from Afghanistan.
Along with other NATO nations, the British plan to have withdrawn all combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, putting huge pressure on already stretched air transport resources.
Beyond keeping the Tristars, another possible measure to maximize short-term lift capability was a lease of Boeing C-17s, Dalton said during an interview earlier this year.
The RAF recently ordered its eighth airlifter from Boeing for delivery this summer.
The British are also acquiring two cargo/passenger versions of the BAE146 airliner as an urgent operational requirement to supplement transport activities between bases in Afghanistan — a role often undertaken by the Hercules.
Air transport capabilities were given a further boost here April 9 when the AirTanker consortium finally announced that the first of a 14-strong fleet of new A330 transport and inflight refueling tankers has been released for operational service with the RAF.
The EADS-led consortium providing the aircraft as part of a 24-year private finance initiative deal said the A330 conducted its first training sortie under the command of its own crew April 8 to “signal the commencement of the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft service to the RAF.”
The deal will see a mix of AirTanker and RAF crews provide passenger, cargo and inflight refueling services using a core fleet of nine A330s with a further five aircraft able to swing between third-party markets and the British military, according to demand.