Question on French C-130's

[Flyboy]

While digging data for my own slides I could not find FMS numbers on French C-130's. They do however have French Civilian call signs. Does anyone have the story behind this? For example how took delivery place?

Thanks in advance,
Marc

[Bennie]

While digging data for my own slides I could not find FMS numbers on French C-130's. They do however have French Civilian call signs. Does anyone have the story behind this? For example how took delivery place?

Thanks in advance,
Marc

Hey Marc,

What do you mean by 'French Civilian call signs'? F-xxxx, whereby the first x is in the second half of the alphabet? That's not a civilian callsign!
Most, if not all, French military aircraft codes are derivates of the 'callsign'!
Take Falcon 7X serial number 86 for example: F-RAFB.
And did you never notice the F-xxxx on Patrouille the France Alpha Jets??

[Flyboy]

Yes, I am familiar with the F-TERx of l' patrouille and diplomatic AdlA planes. One of the reasons (as I understood) for this is to use this c/s wen not wanting to appear military. For example heen crossing 'less friendly' airspace...

Moreover; the C-130 seem not to be sold via FMS and that is my question.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Wrecks]

Yes, I am familiar with the F-TERx of l' patrouille and diplomatic AdlA planes. One of the reasons (as I understood) for this is to use this c/s wen not wanting to appear military. For example heen crossing 'less friendly' airspace...
Moreover; the C-130 seem not to be sold via FMS and that is my question.
[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

These F-xxxx "call signs" the French use have nothing to do with not wanting to appear military.
French regulations dictate that all a/c based in France must have a identification based on the
F-xxxx system. The last 2 or 3 letters are normally used as codes, every unit had its own "call sign" range.
Also all Marine a/c have these F-xxxx "call signs" but only a few are known.
When an a/c changed unit in the past, also the call sign changed. A few years back the ruling
changed and also this was no longer allowed. All a/c did have to have a fixed F-xxxx ident,
regardless how many times it changed unit.

[Flyboy]

Thanks for the replies. The actual question is : Does anyone know why French C-130 do not have a FMS number?
Marc

[ehusmann]

Because maybe it wasn't an FMS sale in the first place?

Erwin

[Frank Mink]

Hi all,
According wikipedia:
The U.S. Department of Defense's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program facilitates sales of U.S. arms, defense equipment, defense services, and military training to foreign governments. The purchaser does not deal directly with the defense contractor; instead, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency serves as an intermediary, usually handling procurement, logistics and delivery and often providing product support, training, and infrastructure construction (such as hangars, runways, utilities, etc.). The Defense Contract Management Agency often accepts FMS equipment on behalf of the US government.

According the above mentioned statement I indeed think that the French C-130's were delivered through a FMS.
However I also can't find any other serial other then the French registrations.
Perhaps the aircraft have never received an USAF type of registration.
It could be that the aircraft received temporary civil N registrations for their test flights.

To continue this:
Both G-273 and G-275 Dutch C-130's have FMS serials according the Scramble Database.
However on the Joe Baugher site both serials were allocated to E-8's.
One of those E-8's is w/o according the USAF database of Scramble.

Greetz,
Frank Mink
Tristar Aviation

[ehusmann]

That's nice Frank, but FMS is only one way to sell arms to other nations. There is also a thing called Direct Commercial Sales (DCS). For an explanation: here.
So the fact that FMS exists and other planes were sold through FMS means absolutely nothing in this case. The lack of an FMS serial would rather indicate the opposite.

Erwin