RAF C-130Ks make last operational flight

The UK Royal Air Force’s remaining Lockheed Martin C-130K tactical transports will be formally retired next week, with its last two examples having made their final operational flights on 25 October.
Operated from Brize Norton air base in Oxfordshire, the RAF’s final K-model Hercules will be flown to St Athan in south Wales on 29 October.
The RAF began operating its first C-130Ks in 1966. The type will be replaced by 22 Airbus Military A400Ms, the first of which is scheduled to be delivered to Brize Norton in September 2014. It also expects to continue flying its new-generation C-130Js until around 2022.
Austria, Mexico and Sri Lanka still operate the C-130K.
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RAF Retire its C-130Ks

The Royal Air Force will axe the final C-130K special force Hercules from its fleet of airlifters by the end of this month. The Defence Ministry is cannibalizing the aircraft of its defensive aids suite to fit into some of the C-130J models being equipped to fill the role.
In an unrelated move, the British have opted to skip the Block 7 update for its J models and incorporate the modifications in their aircraft along with the new Block 8.1 improvements program being led by the US Air Force as part of an international program.
The decision to take the seven remaining Ks out of service brings to a close a 45-year operational association of the variant with the Royal Air Force. The decision leaves Britain’s tactical airlift dependent on 25 of the more modern J models ahead of the introduction of the Airbus A400M next year.
The move has been prompted in part by the heavy cost of keeping the aircraft airworthy. One MoD source said keeping them flying would not have made economic sense, and with the K effectively at the end of its service life, it made more sense to invest in further J capabilities.
It’s the second aging air asset the British have stood down recently. Late last month, the Air Force finally took its VC10 air transport/air tanker fleet out of operation after 47 years of service.
The British C-130K fleet has been gradually run down over the past few years. The aircraft has had its out-of-service date extended several times, mainly as a result of serious delays to the A400M program and to a lesser degree the failure to complete the Block 7 upgrade to the J fleet on time.
Deliveries to lead customer France have commenced on the Airbus aircraft, which in payload sits between the Hercules and the Boeing C-17, which the Royal Air Force also operates.
Increasing numbers of Airbus A330 tanker/transports now coming into service, a handful of old Lockheed Tristars and some leased BAE 146 jets make up the remainder of the British airlift fleet.
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Marshall Aerospace delivers Austria's first upgraded Hercules

Austria's air force has received its first of three Lockheed Martin C-130K tactical transports to have undergone avionics modernisation in the UK, with its second example due to enter work next month.
Hercules 8T-CC has received an updated flight management system, replacement autopilot and radar altimeter and new multi-function cockpit displays. One of three surplus transports acquired from the UK Royal Air Force in 2002, the C-130K had entered modification in January 2013.
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Austria's first Hercules enters modernisation programme

The UK's Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group has begun a maintenance and modernisation programme on the Austrian air force's first Lockheed Martin C-130K tactical transport, under a deal announced in late 2011.
Now undergoing work at the company's Cambridge airport site in eastern England, the Austrian aircraft is one of three to have been acquired from surplus UK Royal Air Force stocks in 2002.
Originally delivered between 1967 and 1968, the K-model Hercules will receive new avionics equipment to address obsolescence issues and to overcome operational restrictions in European airspace

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