IAF’s sixth C-130J en route India

[Indian Army]

IAF’s sixth C-130J en route India

The sixth Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules for the Indian Air Force has departed from Marietta on December 15. The aircraft, like five others delivered to the IAF earlier, is ahead of schedule

 

[sancho]

IAF’s sixth C-130J en route India

Note, with refuelling probe and EO pod below the nose!

 

[Abingdonboy]

All 6 IAF HERC have this!!

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Uploaded by LockheedMartinVideos on Dec 16, 2011

 

[Abingdonboy]

^^^ interesting to note that if thus truly is a vid of departure from US to India that a2a refuelling probe and EO pod are fitted when they have defeinelty not been during previous transit flights rather removed then fitted post landing in India. Strange.

 

[Thundersword]

^^^@vid which was the other huuuuge plane in the background???

 

[DMLA]

^^^@vid which was the other huuuuge plane in the background???

C-5 Galaxy. Most likely the upgraded C-5M with the RERP upgrade as is obvious from the engines!
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

With RERP:

without:

 

[sancho]

All 6 IAF HERC have this!!

They are meant to have them, but some of the early delivered didn't had them integrated yet and you don't need to put them away for transit flights. This one instead has both from the start, that's why I mentioned it.

 

[Abingdonboy]

They are meant to have them, but some of the early delivered didn't had them integrated yet and you don't need to put them away for transit flights. This one instead has both from the start, that's why I mentioned it.

No buddy you don't NEED to put them (EO pod/a2a refuelling probe) away for transit but you CAN. I believe the reason IAF pilots gave was the added and unessercary drag caused by them. As the planes were neither going to be refuelled in the air nor conduct low-level night flying there was simply no need to undertake such a massive journey with the added drag penalty that added nothing but cost ($10,000s of USD).

 

[sancho]

No buddy you don't NEED to put them (EO pod/a2a refuelling probe) away for transit but you CAN. I believe the reason IAF pilots gave was the added and unessercary drag caused by them. As the planes were neither going to be refuelled in the air nor conduct low-level night flying there was simply no need to undertake such a massive journey with the added drag penalty that added nothing but cost ($10,000s of USD).

That's more than doubtful! If drag was the issue, we would have seen the policy of drag reduction for all of the C130s and they all would be send to India without these parts, but that's not the case. Also, the first one didn't had refuelling probe and EO pod at Aero India 2011, but as you can see, they weren't available then:

http://www.flying-wings.com/airshows/11_aeroindia/c130j/AI2011_C-130J-5152.jpg

 

[T90TankGuy]

thats the thing in dealing with Americans . they almost always on time on deliverables. and god forbid if you promise them something and not deliver it on time .

have the new batch of 6 c 130 been ordered? any one ?

 

[Mech]

On time and always. India should broaden its cooperation with the United States. They are no threat to us...nor are we any threat to them. One is the world's most powerful democracy and the other; the worlds largest democracy.

 

[Laughing_soldier]

This one has FLIR pod.

 

[Indian Army]

thats the thing in dealing with Americans . they almost always on time on deliverables. and god forbid if you promise them something and not deliver it on time .

have the new batch of 6 c 130 been ordered? any one ?

Dec 7/11: Indian defense minister Antony answers a Parliamentary question by saying that:

“Government has not inked any follow-on deal for acquiring nine additional C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft with the US. However, a Letter of Request (LoR) has been issued to the U.S. Government for the procurement of the additional aircraft…. The cost of the procurements will be known once the Contracts are finalised and signed.”

This may have been a simple mistake, as the DSCA announcement was for 6, in line with plans announced some time ago.

 

[Abingdonboy]

That's more than doubtful! If drag was the issue, we would have seen the policy of drag reduction for all of the C130s and they all would be send to India without these parts, but that's not the case. Also, the first one didn't had refuelling probe and EO pod at Aero India 2011, but as you can see, they weren't available then:

http://www.flying-wings.com/airshows/11_aeroindia/c130j/AI2011_C-130J-5152.jpg

Buddy what are you trying to say? All IAF C-130-30Js were ordered with A2A refuelling probes and EO/FLIR pods (in fact 8 AAQ-22 Star Safire III electro-optical/infrared sensors, 2 being spares, were included in the package sold to IAF). We have seen during testing phase both items installed on the plane and other times removed. As these accessories are ZVERY mission specific it is safe to assume when the HERC is conducting missions that don't involve these specific mission profiles then these items will be removed. In this case the IAF/LM might have wanted to test long-range chratersitics of the plane with such equipment mounted- who knows? It could have been any number of things.