Page 5 - AVALON 2023 - Day 3 | DAILY NEWS

RNZAF AWAITS ARRIVAL

OF NEW C130-J HERCULES

© Gordon Arthur

The Royal New Zealand Air Force collaboration with other nations Like their predecessors, the new Hercules
(RNZAF) has retired the first of its five on developments and system upgrades aircraft will need to operate in extreme
C-130H Hercules transports. The aircraft, over the life of the aircraft. environments like the frozen wastes of
bearing the serial number ‘NZ7003’, per- Antarctica or the topical humidity of the
formed its final flight on 9 February, flying The contract was worth NZD1.521 billion Pacific islands.
from RNZAF Base Auckland to Base (USD990 million), and encompasses the
Woodbourne near Blenheim. five aircraft, a full-mission flight simulator Certainly, the C-130J is more capable
and ground infrastructure upgrades. It stip- than the older C-130H and this translates
The veteran aircraft had arrived in New ulated that the first aircraft delivery would into significant improvements. If flying to
Zealand way back in 1965, so it has served occur in 2024, and all five will be operating Samoa for a disaster relief mission, for
faithfully for 58 years. It was one of a trio by the end of 2025. example, it would take seven flights instead
that reached New Zealand that year, while of ten, and 70 flight hours instead of 105,
the two others in the fleet are relative Indeed, Lockheed Martin is expected to to deliver 50 pallets of supplies.
youngsters since they only arrived in 1969. begin making New Zealand’s first C-130J Its range of 2,400nm compares to 1,800nm
in March once a critical design review is for the C-130H, while the C-130J can
No. 40 Squadron operates these utilitarian complete.
workhorses, and they have flown to such accommodate 21 tonnes of cargo or 128
distant places as the Middle East, South Their arrival will enable a phased with- passengers, compared to 18.1 tonnes and
Pacific and Antarctica over the intervening 92 personnel for the latter.
years. drawal of the incumbent Hercules fleet,
which has proven to be more and more Former defence minister Mark said of
The C-130H fleet underwent a life exten- difficult to keep flying. Indeed, on at least the associated simulator, it will help
sion programme beginning in 2005, adding one occasion the complete Kiwi fleet of ‘build and maintain crew skills, and allow
more demanding training scenarios to be
an avionics upgrade and a structural Hercules has been grounded and unavail- attempted without risk to personnel, and
refurbishment. able for missions.
while preserving flight hours for operational
The days of the remaining quartet are num- The then defence minister at the time, Ron tasks’.
bered too, since they will soon be replaced Mark, described this acquisition as his The RNZAF is also receiving four new P-8A
by five brand new Lockheed Martin C-130J- ‘highest priority’. Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from
30 Super Hercules purchased via the Boeing, the first of which touched down at
Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route. The C-130Js will come with equipment RNZAF Base Ohakea in December 2022.
such as a wide-bandwidth, high-speed Incoming P-8As have allowed the full retire-
A contract, which was awarded without SATCOM system, plus an electro-optical/ ment of the venerable P-3K2 Orion fleet of
a competitive tender, was announced infrared camera. The SATCOM will permit five aircraft.
by Wellington on 5 June 2020. The gov- imagery, data and video to be streamed
ernment had approved a sole-source in real time, and the camera can be used Another platform that needs replacement
procurement the previous year. The gov- for aerial surveillance during humanitarian is the RNZAF’s pair of Boeing 757 transport
ernment explained at the time that an and disaster relief missions, or search and aircraft. Their lifespan matures at the end
FMS purchase reduced costs and allows rescue tasks. of the decade.

AVALON 2023 MARCH-02-2023 | 5