Lockheed Martin delivers additional HC-130J Combat King II SAR aircraft to the USAF 1705151

a
World Aviation Defense & Security Industry News - Lockheed Martin
 
 
Lockheed Martin delivers additional HC-130J Combat King II SAR aircraft to the USAF
 
A U.S. Air Force crew ferried an HC-130J Combat King II personnel recovery tanker from the Lockheed Martin production facility located here to its new home with the 347th Rescue Group at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, the US-based company announced on May 14.
     
A U.S. Air Force crew ferried an HC-130J Combat King II personnel recovery tanker from the Lockheed Martin production facility located here to its new home with the 347th Rescue Group at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, the US-based company announced on May 14.An HC-130J Combat King II piloted by a U.S. Air Force crew takes off from the Lockheed Martin production facility in Marietta, Georgia
(Credit : Andrew McMurtrie)

     
The HC-130J replaces HC-130P/Ns as the only dedicated fixed-wing Personnel Recovery platform in the Air Force inventory. It is an extended-range version of the C-130J Hercules transport.

Modifications to the HC-130J have improved navigation, threat detection and countermeasures systems. The aircraft fleet has a fully-integrated inertial navigation and global positioning systems, and night vision goggle, or NVG, compatible interior and exterior lighting. It also has forward-looking infrared, radar and missile warning receivers, chaff and flare dispensers, satellite and data-burst communications, and the ability to receive fuel inflight via a Universal Aerial Refueling Receptacle Slipway Installation (UARRSI).

First flight was 29 July 2010, and the aircraft will serve the many roles and missions of the HC-130P/Ns. It is a modified KC-130J aircraft designed to conduct personnel recovery missions, provide a command and control platform, in-flight-refuel helicopters and carry supplemental fuel for extending range or air refueling.

Given the advancing age of its current HC-130 airframes, all of which are based on the venerable C-130E airframe, the US Air Force plans to eventually buy up to 78 HC-130J Combat King IIs to equip rescue squadrons in the active US Air Force, the US Air Force Reserve Command and the Air National Guard.