The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has operated forty-eight Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. The type entered Australian service in December 1958, when No. 36 Squadron accepted the first of twelve C-130As, replacing its venerable Douglas C-47 Dakotas. The acquisition made Australia the first operator of the Hercules after the United States. In 1966 the C-130As were joined by twelve C-130Es, which equipped No. 37 Squadron. The C-130As were replaced by twelve C-130Hs in 1978, and the C-130Es by twelve C-130J Super Hercules in 1999. No. 37 Squadron became the RAAF's sole Hercules operator in 2006, when No. 36 Squadron transferred its C-130Hs before converting to Boeing C-17 Globemaster III heavy transports. The C-130Hs were retired in November 2012, leaving the C-130J as the only model in Australian service. A further twenty C-130Js will be ordered to replace the current fleet.
The RAAF's first strategic airlifter, the Hercules has frequently been used to deliver disaster relief in Australia and the Pacific region, as well as to support military deployments overseas. The aircraft saw extensive service during the Vietnam War, transporting troops and cargo to Southeast Asia and undertaking aeromedical evacuation. Nineteen of the RAAF's fleet of twenty-four C-130s took part in relief efforts in 1974–75 after Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin. Since then, the Hercules have been involved in humanitarian missions to New Guinea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Bali, Sumatra, and New Zealand. They have also seen service during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the Fijian coups in 1987, operations in Somalia in 1993, INTERFET operations in East Timor in 1999–2000, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2001 to 2021. In over fifty years of Australian service, the Hercules have accumulated more than 800,000 flying hours.
Acquisition Initial selection and purchase At the end of World War II, the RAAF's prime transport aircraft was the twin-engined Douglas C-47 Dakota. In 1946, C-47 operations were concentrated under No. 86 Wing and its three flying squadrons, Nos. 36, 37, and 38, based initially at RAAF Station Schofields, New South Wales.Parnell; Lynch, Australian Air Force Since 1911, p. 165Roylance, Air Base Richmond, pp. 92–93 Despite the robustness and versatility of the Dakota, by the early 1950s the Air Force was looking for a replacement with greater cargo capacity and longer range, to better facilitate the deployment and supply of Australian forces.Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 43, 416 In 1954, the RAAF embarked on a major re-equipment drive, following a shift in defence funding that favoured the Air Force. The Air Officer Commanding Home Command, Air Vice Marshal Alister Murdoch, led a mission overseas to examine potential new fighter, bomber, transport and training aircraft.Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 38–39
Four British transports were considered: the Blackburn Beverley, Bristol 179B, Bristol 195 and Short PD 16/1. The mission also assessed the American Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar, Fairchild C-123 Provider and Lockheed C-130A Hercules. Of these types, the mission assessed that the Beverley, C-123 and C-130 could potentially meet the RAAF's requirements. Following further consideration of the options after their return to Australia, in early 1955 the members of the mission unanimously recommended that Hercules be procured, as the other two types did not meet some of the most important elements of the requirement.Wilson, Dakota, Hercules, and Caribou in Australian Service, p. 102 At this time the Australian Government was reluctant to fund any new equipment for the RAAF, and a decision to acquire twelve C-130s was not made until mid-1957. A contract for these aircraft was signed in October that year. The Australian C-130As were to be similar to those in service with the United States Air Force (USAF), the main difference being the use of TF56-A-11 engines in the place of the usual TF56-A-1 and TF56-A-9s; these engines provided almost the same power, but were modified to meet Australian fuel requirements. The total cost for the aircraft, initial crew training and support equipment was $US36 million (equivalent to about 16 million Australian pounds).Wilson, Dakota, Hercules, and Caribou in Australian Service, pp. 102–103
The Hercules represented a huge improvement over the C-47 in payload, range, speed and manoeuvrability, as well as offering cabin pressurisation, short-takeoff-and-landing capability, and bulk loading and despatch via its rear cargo door. The Government expressed concern over the price, at one stage proposing the purchase of only three aircraft, but eventually the Air Force won approval for the twelve that it wanted. Described by the official history of the post-war RAAF as second only to the General Dynamics F-111C as the "most significant" acquisition by the Air Force, the Hercules gave the Australian military its first strategic airlift capability, which in years to come would provide a "lifeline" for deployments to Malaya, Vietnam, and other parts of Southeast Asia.Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 416–418 Australia was the first country other than the United States to operate the Hercules.Roylance, Air Base Richmond, pp. 97–98 The RAAF's C-130As were also the last of this variant to be built.
RAAF crews began training on the Hercules in mid-1958 at Sewart Air Force Base in Nashville, Tennessee. Much of the training took place on a simulator, augmented by approximately fifty hours flying time in the aircraft. To cope with the Hercules' complexities, the aircrew category of flight engineer, absent from the RAAF since World War II, was reinstated. A new category, that of loadmaster, was also instituted; airmen performing similar duties on Dakotas had done so on an ad hoc rather than a permanent basis, without a distinct category having been formalised.Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 165–166 A specialist crew member was needed to make weight-and-balance calculations and oversee loading and despatch for the Hercules' 20-tonne freight capacity (compared to three-and-a-half tonnes in a Dakota) and for its range of cargo-delivery systems. A large hangar previously used to service seaplanes at RAAF Base Rathmines was disassembled and re-erected at RAAF Base Richmond, New South Wales, where the C-130s would be based.Wilson, Dakota, Hercules, and Caribou in Australian Service, p. 103
C-130E and C-130H acquisition
A decision to purchase another twelve C-130s was announced in November 1964. At this time the C-130As were being used to supply the Australian forces engaged in the Vietnam War. This task demonstrated that the RAAF had insufficient long-ranged transport aircraft to simultaneously support overseas deployments and meet the force's domestic requirements in Australia. As a result, the Government decided to order twelve C-130E Hercules as part of a package of acquisitions for the RAAF and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) that also included ten Lockheed P-3 Orion and fourteen Grumman S-2 Tracker maritime patrol aircraft, as well as twelve Hawker Siddeley HS 748 transports. The 14.7-million-pound contract for the new C-130s was signed on 9 February 1965.Wilson, Dakota, Hercules, and Caribou in Australian Service, p. 105 In contrast to the concerns raised by the government over the cost of purchasing the C-130As, this expansion of the Hercules force gained ready agreement, due in no small part to the benefits for the armed services, particularly the Australian Army, demonstrated by the first twelve aircraft. The long-serving C-130As were replaced by new Hercules in the late 1970s; twelve C-130Hs were ordered in June 1976 for a cost of $A86 million, and deliveries took place between July and October 1978.Wilson, Military Aircraft of Australia, p. 135
The RAAF's early model Hercules received several repairs and modifications during their service lives. During the early 1960s all of the C-130As were flown to the United States to receive new wing fuel tanks after the original tanks were affected by corrosion caused by tropical fungi and bacteria. Later that decade these aircraft received new panels on the upper surface of their wings after the original ones were found to be faulty.Wilson, Dakota, Hercules, and Caribou in Australian Service, pp. 119–122 The C-130Es were also fitted with strengthened wing centre boxes in the early 1970s after equivalent USAF aircraft were found to be suffering from greater-than-expected wing stress during operations in Vietnam.Wilson, Dakota, Hercules, and Caribou in Australian Service, p. 122 During 1964 the C-130As received new doppler navigation systems, and the C-130Es and Hs were fitted with ring laser gyroscope inertial navigation systems from 1989.Wilson, Dakota, Hercules, and Caribou in Australian Service, pp. 122–123 In 1994, four of No. 36 Squadron's C-130Hs were equipped with Electronic Warfare Self Protection packs, including radar and missile warning systems, and counter measures such as chaff and flares. Later in the decade, one of the C-130Hs was fitted with extensive signals intelligence equipment under the classified "Project Peacemate"; this aircraft was crewed by RAAF and Defence Signals Directorate personnel and its existence was never publicly confirmed by the Government. The modified C-130H was reported to still be active in the signals intelligence role in 2008.La Franchi, "New ADF airlift studies" The C-130Hs were also among the first Australian military aircraft to be modified to allow aircrew to operate them while wearing night vision goggles.
C-130J acquisition and planned fleet expansion The Australian Government ordered twelve C-130J Super Hercules in December 1995 and deliveries began during 1999. As part of the deal negotiated with Lockheed Martin, seven of the RAAF's C-130Es were transferred to the company in return for a reduced price on the new aircraft.Kaminski, "C-130J Super Hercules Part 2", p. 81 At the time the order for the twelve C-130Js was placed, the Government also took out options for a further twenty-seven Super Hercules, but these were not taken up; the options included seven airborne early warning and control and eight aerial refuelling variants, as well as up to eight transports for the Royal New Zealand Air Force.Pittaway, "C-130J upgrade", p. 16 The RAAF was the first operator of this C-130 variant, which was larger than earlier models and had a crew of only three (two pilots and a loadmaster) eliminating the navigator and flight engineer roles employed in earlier models. The aircraft initially suffered from serious mechanical and software problems as well as a shortage of spare parts, and were assessed as "experiencing significant operational shortfalls" in a 2002 Australian National Audit Office report.Australian National Audit Office, Test and Evaluation of Major Defence Equipment Acquisitions, pp. 95–97McLaughlin, "Hitting its straps", p. 32 The Defence Science and Technology Organisation undertook considerable research into the C-130J design and developed improvements to the aircraft that addressed problems with excessive vibration. The 2009 Defence white paper Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030 called for the acquisition of two more C-130Js to partially replace the H variants. This purchase did not go ahead, as the government instead ordered a fifth Boeing C-17 Globemaster III.