UK Defence Forum

Looks like the MOD have contracted an AN-124 as well?

Not bad for a tax haven to receive a lot of taxpayer's cash £££££££

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the BVI and other similar territories is a millionaire. There are many regular low-income people who work for very low wages which service those "tax haven" industries and who live in very poor housing, sometimes in shanty town like conditions.

The US government are in the process of acquiring a former C-130J from the Royal Air Force to replace the older KC-130T 'Fat Albert' for the USN's Blue Angels logistic support role.

http://www.c-130.net/c-130-news-article510.html

One of the ones we are binning anyway.

grimbob wrote:

The US government are in the process of acquiring a former C-130J from the Royal Air Force to replace the older KC-130T 'Fat Albert' for the USN's Blue Angels logistic support role.

http://www.c-130.net/c-130-news-article510.html

Interesting that they have no spare capacity for transports or aircraft that's ready for the cannery

The USN/USMC have known where to go for their bargains at a steal of a price ever since they bought a load of used Harrier II’s with one good previous owner.

Fair play to ‘em.

http://www.janes.com/article/80083/bang ... pport-deal

Bangladesh procurement of two surplus UK C-130Js confirmed with support deal.

Can anyone see beyond the paywall? How much was the sale and does the money come back to the MoD?

shark bait wrote:Can't put a Herc on a carrier though, and if you can base it close enough, just use the Herc!

https://youtu.be/ZGy2ppViCck

Oh yes you can...

lets get the one with rocket assistance, things look better with flames coming out the side (controlled flames)

Aethulwulf wrote:

Oh yes you can...

shark bait wrote:lets get the one with rocket assistance, things look better with flames coming out the side (controlled flames)

Suddenly, for some reason, I got a mental image of the RN version - a Shorts Skyvan with flames coming out of it's @rse

France bought some of their Herc J's with refuelling kits (and we plan to keep some of our planes to 2030).

As far as i know, the tanker kit has only ever been integrated in the short fuselage C-130s. The RAF is keeping only the long fuselage ones, despite early reports of a 12-2 split, with the 2 short ones retained specifically to become tactical tankers.

It was understood that the SDSR 2015's vague promises about "longer range" for Special Forces helicopters would result in acquisition of AAR capability, but it doesn't look like it is actually going to happen.
The short-fuselage C-130s will be all gone out of service soon enough, so if those probes are supposed to mean something, time for decisions is now.

Otherwise it'll be just another AAR-capable asset that the UK is unable to refuel, like (for obviously different reasons) Rivet Joint, P-8 and C-17.

shark bait wrote:Can't put a Herc on a carrier though, and if you can base it close enough, just use the Herc!

Yes you can!

Just can't do anything else in the mean time.

http://www.military.com/video/military- ... 2569251001

Gabriele wrote: early reports of a 12-2 split, with the 2 short ones retained specifically to become tactical tankers.

It was understood that the SDSR 2015's vague promises about "longer range" for Special Forces helicopters would result in acquisition of AAR capability, but it doesn't look like it is actually going to happen.
The short-fuselage C-130s will be all gone out of service soon enough

"France receives first C-130J Hercules | Jane's 360
http://www.janes.com/article/76683/fran ... j-hercules

Jan 1, 2018 - The first Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules for the French Air Force was ... Martin C/KC-130J Hercules transport/tanker aircraft at Orléans-Bricy in late ... two KC-130J tankers were purchased through a US Foreign Military Sale ."
- I understand that the German purchase of transports specifically for their SF would direct those planes to the same base in France... saves them buying tankers/ tanker kits

And what is that supposed to mean...? That the plan is using italian, french, german or american C-130s tankers...?

Gabriele wrote:As far as i know, the tanker kit has only ever been integrated in the short fuselage C-130s.

It was only a very soft way of refuting "only ever"
... who will do the favours next: that the Airtanker contract only allows the use of those assets in AAR (refuting that)?
err, how do you refuel helicopters from jets?

It was only a very soft way of refuting "only ever"

But you did not refute anything. The KC-130J is based on the short fuselage, including the ones ordered by France and Germany.
And the RAF is only planning to keep in service the long fuselage variant, the C-130J-30 (C4, for the RAF) while giving up all the short (C5) which are the ones which could be more or leass readily converted to tankers, since KC-130Js are nothing new.

Whether it would be possible at all to turn a C-130-30 into a tanker is something i do not know. The fact that nobody so far tried is not inspiring.

err, how do you refuel helicopters from jets?

You purchase V-22s. They could refuel directly from the Voyager. Guess Director Special Forces and the Navy were both dreaming of it, but we all know it ain't gonna happen.

Surely the obvious answer is for the UK to buy a few Cobham A400 refueling pods. Or am I missing something?

shark bait wrote:Can't put a Herc on a carrier though

Sorry, had to be done

Little J wrote:

shark bait wrote:Can't put a Herc on a carrier though

Sorry, had to be done

wonder how shed fair with that big hump of metal fixed to the front, might have a few bent prop blades I imagine, or really test her short take-off ability

Can't imagine the payload would be worth it either.

Didn't they use the rocket packs for the take off during the trials/experiments

Lord Jim wrote:Didn't they use the rocket packs for the take off during the trials/experiments

JATO Jet Assisted Take Off

That was for when operating on the ice with ski 's on, or when doing a very short loaded take off.

That's what I thought, and if I remember the Blue Angels support Herc, does this as a party piece at their displays.

Can't remember seeing this here...

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/raf-c-1 ... g-in-iraq/

https://web.archive.org/web/20180708125 ... 9163675649

Apparently, it was a long fuselage one (the variant we're keeping). As far as I can tell, with the sale of 3 short fuselaged C.5's to Bangladesh and the USMC that means we're down to a total of 18. I think the split is 13 C.4 and 5 C.5, but I might be wrong. Surely selling anymore of the fleet now would be foolish?

Timmymagic wrote: with the sale of 3 short fuselaged C.5's to Bangladesh and the USMC that means we're down to a total of 18

I seem to remember the total for Bangladesh went up, to four.
- whether the additional one came from this (reported by inews in August last year) unravelling "Britain decided to withdraw its 10 C-130J aircraft from RAF service in 2015 after a major defence and security review. The Bahraini aircraft are currently being refurbished by Marshall Aerospace Group at Cambridge airport, where the aircraft have been seen in the Bahrain air force camouflage pattern"

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/
... who can tell

Refitting old planes to the SF std ( if we sell all the short bodied one) sounds stupid' but then again, the A-400M is bigger still, so might not suit all occasions in such a use