Posted on 10/03/2011 9:49:00 AM PDT by MBT ARJUN
NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is set to acquire six more C-130J Super Hercules special operations aircraft in addition to the six already ordered.
The IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne, told India Strategic defence magazine (www.indiastrategic.in) that the aircraft had performed well in the recent earthquake relief operations in north-eastern India and that the IAF would utilize the multi-role capability of the aircraft as required.
The C-130J can land and take off from unpaved, grassy fields the size of a football ground and can be a big support in both peace and war to drop or pick up equipment, soldiers and those hit by calamities. The IAF had signed a deal for six C-130J aircraft for about $1.1 billion with the US military systems giant Lockheed Martin on January 31, 2008, and five of these aircraft have been delivered within 2011 as contacted, before their scheduled delivery time. Appropriate infrastructure has also been established and the required number of pilots trained either on or before time.
Browne said that the sixth and last of the aircraft was due in India in the first half of November, and the government had already approved the acquisition of another six aircraft. The first of the six aircraft was delivered in early 2011.
Discussions with the US Government and the company for the new batch were on, and he expected the order to be signed by January 2012, or in about three months from now. "We are very satisfied with the aircraft's performance," he observed.
It may be noted that the government asked the IAF to provide relief to the Sikkim earthquake victims immediately after the disaster, and IAF pressed the C-130Js into service for the first time. Within the first couple of days, IAF airlifted lifted 188.75 tonnes of equipment, 735 personnel, including 20.48 tons of food, 6 tons of medicines, 8.5 tonnes of fuel and about 51.81 tonnes of relief material. Thirty-six casualties were also evacuated.
All the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft are being acquired under a direct government-to-government agreement, under what is known as the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme of the US government. The acquisition is on a turnkey basis that includes on-time delivery, training, setting up of support infrastructure, spares and spare engines. Most of the work has been completed at IAF's Hindon airbase near the Indian capital.
The air chief said that "a full motion simulator is also being installed as part of the company's offsets obligations and would be ready for utilization by 2012".
50 year old+ design and it keeps on going. Great plane.
Oh!!!Yep,it just proves her mettle in Hilly ,unprepared airstrip in Himalayan region and delivers humanitarian relief without a glitch .
I don’t remember the incident.What was it known as? (the incident)
I am all for all available assets to be used for quake relief, but its not as if anyone is at all surprised by the Hercs dirt-field performance. Did the IAF need a quake to discover the Hercs capabilities? This has been proven decades ago. What gives? maybe i'm paranoid but hopefully its not another scam. And if its that good, why only 6 ?
AAAAAAA...........Say again ???When this incident happened and what is the connection with this article ??
Is that with our without the "Credible Sport" option?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKCl3lfAx1Q
"A True Story. Few civilians realize the immense role the brave pilots in C-130 aircraft played in the Vietnam War. Now, Major Curt Messex tells the hair raising tales he experienced piloting a C-130. Imagine flying a boxcar with four engines, loaded with high explosive fuel, at night, low, over a jungle with numerous Viet Cong shooting at you with 23mm, 37mm, and 57mm guns. You'll see tracers zooming by so thick and so bright they light-up your cockpit with an eerie red glow. And inspite of it, you must drop supplies on a postage stamp to needy troops below."
http://booksinmotion.biz/COMBAT%20PAY,%20CURT%20MESSEX,%20Kevin%20Foley
Hard to believe these aircraft are going for almost 200 million a copy.
It is a pretty old incident.
http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/vigilance_park/shootdown_flight60528.shtml
Well you could buy an old used A model for a million and a half, but those new Js have a lot of bells and whistles.
The AN-26/32 and other Russian aircraft are either too old or out of production and have higher operating costs and poorer night-vision/electronic warfare capabilities. The C-130J is the only realistic medium lifter on offer for most roles now. 6+6 (with the possibility of more) is a meaningful number since there are already a large number of tactical airlifters (AN-32 and Avros) with varying degrees of flight life left.
Its not jamming, its called Meaconing; broadcasting of false navagational signals in order to lure an aircraft off course. Happened several times during the Cold War.
Whatever they call but still related to jamming like previous Polish president and his entourage death.
But it's showing its age and the makers seem a bit too comfortable, suggesting they might think about a big fuselage version c.2020. By that time there could be half a dozen competitors in the game, including an half-Indian one.
Actually, much more dangerous than jamming since the pilot is not aware they are flying on false navigational signals. Usually, when you are being jammed you know about it.
My grandfather had that happen to him in Germany in the late 1950’s. He was the acting CO of the 14th ACR (the actual CO had a heart attack) and was flying along the border in a helicopter, heading toward one of his checkpoints, when he looked out the window and realized that they’d just crossed the border. The pilot quickly took evasive maneuvers and got them back into West German airspace just before a pair of Soviet jets appeared from the east.
I’ve read reports that during the 50’s and 60’s meaconing along the West German/East German border was fairly common.
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