As good as it is to hear this news (props to the engineers, technicians, management, staff, & civilians involved).
Shouldn't we be moving on from the C-130? And
not recycling the same aircraft every so year?
The
whole world (other than lazy & poor nations like us) has moved onto better & upgraded aircraft.
India has ~20 C-130J Super Hercules. Can we get those (or upgrade ours to that standard)?.
In the
1980's, the US had
already planned to replace the C-130 with the
Advanced_Medium_STOL_Transport (was later scrapped for the C-130J but is now back online & going into R/D (soon to be into 2nd phase)).
4 decades later, we are still operating the same aircraft. Better options:-
Boeing_C-17_Globemaster_III
Xian_Y-20; with Chinese help, we can ToT this & help them in R/D & manufacturing (investments into the project too), plus also sharing the project costs.
I personally choose the Y-20 (it has the potential to grow into a much bigger & versatile aircraft). Instead of having 18 or so C-130, 10 Y-20's can lift 2x more (cargo or troops; hopefully) and save in terms of cost/maintenance (50th overhaul for 18 aircraft's lol; don't know if I should be happy or crying)
.
In case money is an issue (like it always is), I'm willing to start a GoFundMe page for PAF lol and will be willing to personally share USD 1000 each year