Bangladesh receives final surplus UK C-130J airlifter

[The Ronin]

Bangladesh has received the last of five UK-surplus Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules transport aircraft it ordered, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Jane's on 1 April.

Aircraft ZH 887, a short-bodied C-130J (designated C5 in Royal Air Force [RAF] service), was transferred to the Bangladesh Air Force on 3 February, ahead of the MoD's previously stated target date of "the end of March".

As previously reported by Jane's , Bangladesh ordered the surplus C-130Js in two batches of two and three aircraft in 2018 and earlier in 2019, respectively. The deals were initially revealed via maintenance contracts announced by Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group (ADG), although the MoD later confirmed the total number to Jane's .

The first of the five aircraft was rolled out by Marshall ADG during an official ceremony in mid-July 2019. As Marshall ADG noted at the time, the company is carrying out comprehensive depth maintenance and important modifications on all the aircraft including capability enhancements such as medical evacuation, avionics upgrades, and the provision of a passenger transport configuration.

The Bangladesh Air Force had previously noted that the acquisition of C-130J aircraft from the RAF provides a key enhancement to its current airlift capability. As well as performing in-country support of the aircraft, Marshall ADG is modifying the aircraft, including designing, developing, and installing a medical evacuation capability to enable the Bangladesh Air Force to carry out tasks within the country and overseas in support of UN missions.

The acquisition of the C-130Js will enable the Bangladesh Air Force to retire the four C-130Bs that it has fielded since 2001 (these were acquired secondhand from the United States) at the same time as augmenting its three Antonov An-32 'Cline' and three L-410UVP-200 transport aircraft that date from 1989 and 2015, respectively.

https://www.janes.com/article/95269...Tuh3LCZiDHNJoHaZqgKe8-EjPoZbgC0Obec-wP0BwZ3mo

 

[Michael Corleone]

Vague, how will the c130s be retired so early when antonov has been serving for longer

 

[The Ronin]

Vague, how will the c130s be retired so early when antonov has been serving for longer

Those C-130s are lot older than An-32s. They are probably 60-65 years old if i remember correctly so they have to retire sooner or later. An-32 went through MLU in 2017 so they will fly more years. But Janes might be wrong, word is BAF will keep flying these old Hercules for now.

Anyway what happened to your forum? Looks like the whole website is down.

 

[Michael Corleone]

Those C-130s are lot older than An-32s. They are probably 60-65 years old if i remember correctly so they have to retire sooner or later. An-32 went through MLU in 2017 so they will fly more years. But Janes might be wrong, word is BAF will keep flying these old Hercules for now.

Anyway what happened to your forum? Looks like the whole website is down.

Idk mate I’ve reduced my social media usage. I come here rarely now

 

[Bilal9]

These C-130 J MEDEVAC birds could have been used to evacuate our folks from Wuhan if they were ready in time (and if the cargo hold was equipped with seats). IDK if these were considered. I believe their ranges (~2000 miles) should have covered the distance. Rome2Rio says,

• Flight Distance to Wuhan from Dhaka : 1547.2 miles
  
• Flight Duration: About 10 hours

 

[fallstuff]

Nice looking bird !