The fifth of six C-130J Super Hercules on order for the Indian Air Force has departed the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta. The sixth will be delivered in October.
Photos Courtesy Lockheed-Martin
Fifth C-130 For IAF On Way
Photos Courtesy Lockheed-Martin
The swift delivery is something good to see
hey shiv,do india have plans to buy more of these??
look awesome !!in which area these birds will be use ??? what about procuring critical equipment from Israel due to IAF wont sign cisoma
in what why it affects its capability
jai hind
The americans have proved more reliable suppliers than the ruskis…perhaps we ought to change camp!!!
Good to see that the US delivery is quick, when compared to Russia which would take 2-3 years minimum.
Prompt suppliers – yes! Reliable suppliers – not yet! They might….just that it is too early to conclude that.
– Manne
Eagerly looking for the order for another six
Well they are reliable at least in terms to getting to quick delivery. Of course, the fact that they have been making these planes for a very long time and thus all logistics are probably worked-out. But, still we cannot ignore the fact that this is probably faster than most (if not all) other comparable deliveries that IAF may have received from other sources.
welcome home big girl. 🙂
Today saw this beauty taking off from PALAM airport around around 1815 hrs …Brand new !!!!
Great!! hope to see the C-17s soon too…We should at least have 20 of each of these types..The Chinese have rail toad infra to transport their troops..so we need these birds in good numbers to airlift our troops in matter of hours to the borders. Along with the Russian rugged AN-32s and IL-76s, we are gonna have the best transport capability imbibing the techs from two of the world's great super powers.And if the Indo-Russian MTA comes in time, it would be the icing on the cake..Exciting times ahead, folks!!Cheers!!
@nipun111-India plans to buy 6 more of these birds.Good to see that united states delivered the aircraft ahead of schedule.A worthy example of commitment by Boeing.Red star ought to learn a lot from Boeing when it comes to delivery of sophisticated weaponry on time.
Yanks have a running production line and therefore can make deliveries promptly. Many people forget today, but the deliveries of Antonov 32 fleet to IAF was done very quickly from the running productions lines in Ukraine.
Reliable however is a different ballgame alltogether. Nobody knows what the Americans will do if things dont suit their foreign policy objectives (that is most of the time). As in Pokhran 2, they will cut the spare supply in times of crisis. These vital supply assets will fail us when they are needed most. Yankee lovers should realise the naked truth before singing stars and stripes.
Looking in to their prompt delivery schedule and to compensate the ever increasing shortage of fighters, I think India should have already purchased 50 nos of F-18 from USA, subject to condition that Israel should have covered up all the deficiencies arising out of cismoa.
@Litmus 12:42PM Two superpowers?? Little behind, eh? There is just one superpower left since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 i.e., the US of A.
It became evident to the soviets and the world, that they were not a superpower after all. Every single weapon system in Iraq's inventory was decimated by the superior technology of the American's. It is so true even today. Libyan operations again showed the American weapon platforms supremacy. Europeans could even go in, until after the airspace was sanitized by the Americans by taking out the SAMs and the Aircraft.
We are playing with fire. We must immediately sign CISMOA and BECA and receive cutting edge technologies from the Americans. We have China breathing down our necks, with its proxy Pakistan equipping itself with cutting edge weapons. More than the military transport, we need the Fifth Generation Multi-Role Fighter, the F35 JSF, modern naval ships with Aegis Radar and Battle Management Systems, More P8I LRMR Aircraft etc…
Need at least 20-30 of C130 Js and C17 Globemaster III urgently.
The IAF keep saying how having so many redudant aircraft types in the same class is a nightmare for them and yet the government keeps making more deals like this.
Why do we need the C-130 when we have 90 MRTAs in development with the Russians? They both fall under the same category after all…
@anony 9:29am
Why? Well, MRTA is still vapour ware and God knows how long it will take from first prototype to certification to delivery.
@DeepakDutta Why not you provide money to govt for that? I am sick of seeing these type of comments.
News:India is buying 3 submarines. Comment: We shall buy at least 30-40 more submarines.
News: India is buying 126 MRCA and 240 FGFA.
Comment: We shall buy at least 300 MRCA and 500 FGFA.
News: India is buying 256 tanks.
Comment: We shall buy at least 1000 more.
Seriously guys, WTH? Defense budget is not infinite. If govt takes any of your 'priceless' advice then every other project will have to be cancelled.
What we should do? Increase defense budget? And then what? Become like USSR and collapse under high military expenditure?
Only way to increase defense expenditure is to increase economy. But sadly even the brightest of our minds seek 'sarkari naukri' and want to become an IAS. Almost no-one wants to go into manufacturing and actually contribute something to India's economic growth.
@Deepak Datta: A stealth F-117A Nighthawk was once shot down by a 1960s vintage SAM SA-3 !
@Deepak Datta: Well, technically An-32s and IL-76 were build of the Soviet("Super Power") era…anyways the point is that if you think that technology is the only ways forward then I guess that's not true..Sometimes pure tactics and strategy can win u a war while mere technological prowess would fail.Its the amalgamation of both.
@Anon 12:41 The govt showing the economic Lollipop is only for them to lick and put in their Swiss accounts..How much is govt doing to encourage the innovation in field of manufacturing technology..Why is there not a national Industrial Lab set up which was proposed by the NDA govt. There was talk of using Sanskrit to develop Operating Systems and encryption levels to be introduced in the Defense systems..Y students and Faculty of various Universities not being involved in developing innovative industrial production technologies..?? See, there are many such questions which have to be answered but unfortunately there is no one accountable in this system from whom we can get the answers.
SAM @ 5:15PM, what's you point? Do you mean to say that Stealth is useless and we should stick to our good old Mig 21s, which are kind of vintage too… of course these were upgraded recently so not sure if vintage tag really qualifies.
Bravo Deepak!! your comment on 12:41 deserve kudos. No Elite with brains want to do manufacturing and none wants to do R&D. We will always buy these hi-tech gazimos from abroad, now from US, may be later from China.R&D and Manufacturing pisses off palm greacing Indians. Bribing is much easier than risk of manufacturing and R&D.
@SAM The shooting down of the F117 Bomber is still a mystery. Most common theory is that a mole in the NATO HQ disclosed a fixed route that the F117s were taking repeatedly. BTW SA-3 Goa may have been originally designed in 1960, it had undergone numerous upgrades since, the last being the Pechora version.
Remember, these SA-3 Missiles were in the Iraq's inventory in the 1991 Gulf War Operation Desert Storm. Despite hundres of missions by F117s, including from the start when the entire Iraqi radar and missile infrastructure was intact, not a single one was shot down.
There are unconfirmed reports that they had a Kolchuga ESM system that detected the stealth bomber, after the route was already disclosed. Kolchuga has been deployed by Pakistan in numbers.
F117 – Nighthawk Ground Attack aircraft flew 1278 sorties during 1991 Gulf War – Operation Desert Storm. Not one plane was shot down, despite very dense SAM environment with Soviet SA-3, SA-6, SA-8, SA-10 SAMs, complimented by Franco-German Roland SAM. Similarly, it flew numerous strategic missions during 2003 Gulf War – Operation Iraqi Freedom, with zero losses.
If a flight path and time of flight intercept is known, Plus the reported use of Ukranian Kolchuga ESM, you could shoot up a dozen or so missiles hoping for a lucky silver bullet. That is what happened during the Serbian shoot down.
hey
in an unrelated development – the IAF had another milestone today. Squadron Leader Veena Saharan, who in March 2009 created history by being the first woman co-pilot of IL-76 Gajraj (and she still is the only woman flying it), was today upgraded to full status of a Captain of the aircraft and shall now be flying the same as first pilot and not a co-pilot. She was upgraded today on 30 Sept 2011 at Chandigarh after her Air Force Examination Boards results were out.
This shall go a long way in instilling in women of India, a desire to excel.
Kudos to her!!!