Future of base's old C-130Hs still uncertain

FILE PHOTO-Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RICK MCFARLAND--8/21/03--A C-130J takes off from Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville on Aug. 21, 2003. Older C-130H models are seen on the tarmac (right). The U.S. Air Force is upgrading its fleet of C-130s.

FILE PHOTO-Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RICK MCFARLAND--8/21/03--A C-130J takes off from Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville on Aug. 21, 2003. Older C-130H models are seen on the tarmac (right). The U.S. Air Force is upgrading its fleet of C-130s.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Climbing into the cockpit of a 100-foot-long, 40-foot-tall C-130, engine specialist Barry Wertz explained the differences between this plane, an H model, and the newer J model close by.

"When you walk up here and you walk up into a J, you'll see something totally different," Wertz said Wednesday as he leaned against the co-pilot's seat and pointed toward about 100 analog dials. "This one's pretty beat up."

The H model, or "Hercules," sat in the north end of the largest hangar at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville. On the south end, airmen with the 19th Maintenance Group performed a routine checkup on a J model, or "Super Hercules."

The worn walls and analog equipment of the C-130H, manufactured in 1986, were a sharp contrast to the digital configuration of the 3-year-old C-130J, which can climb higher and fly faster than the old model.

Last month was a milestone for the C-130, a tactical airlift aircraft that serves as the Air Force's primary vehicle for airdropping people and equipment into hostile areas. On Aug. 23, 1954, the first C-130, the A model, took flight at the Lockheed Martin plant in Burbank, Calif.

Sixty years later, the aging H models -- first manufactured in 1964 -- need upgrading to stay in the skies. According to a report prepared by the Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center, the H model, which currently makes up most of Little Rock's fleet, was originally scheduled to be restricted from parts of European airspace starting in 2017 because of changes in air traffic management standards. The European Commission announced in August that it would delay this deadline to June 2020.

The C-130H would also be unable to fly in some U.S. airspace by Jan. 1, 2020, including areas surrounding major airports.

While the Air Force's active-duty component at Jacksonville is looking to replace the old model with C-130Js, it's up to Congress to decide how the Air National Guard's and Air Force Reserve's fleets of H models will be brought up to regulation.

"Our concern is we have to have upgrades done by 2020, and other countries are already starting to make those moves," said Col. Robert Ator, commander of the Air National Guard's 189th Airlift Wing. "We need to start moving that way so we're not hampered to travel the world."

'Center of the universe'

Little Rock Air Force Base is headed by the 19th Airlift Wing, an active-duty Air Force unit. Also on base are the Air Force Reserve's 913th Airlift Group, the Air National Guard's 189th Airlift Wing and the active-duty 314th Airlift Wing, which acts as the school for all C-130J crews in the U.S. and 47 allied nations.

The base -- "Home of C-130 Combat Airlift" -- has the largest fleet of C-130s in the world.

"We're the center of the universe for the C-130," said Capt. Josh Levine, a maintenance operations officer. "For C-130 pilots, all roads lead through here."

Little Rock has approximately 77 C-130s between all of its units, according to an economic impact statement from fiscal 2013. About 50 of those are H models.

However, the active-duty units at Little Rock are in the process of moving away from the C-130H, sending them to Guard or Reserve units or retiring them to the "boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., where aircraft are sent for scrap, storage or potential reuse.

Levine said the active units have only a handful of C-130H models left, and they are bringing in more J models in coming weeks. Though exactly how many C-130s will be on base after restructuring is uncertain, Levine said, it could be about 60.

"It makes sense for our mission, for what we do. It's a dollars-and-cents issue," said Arlo Taylor, spokesman for the 19th Airlift Wing. "And the H's will still be used by our partners in the Guard and the Reserves."

For about a decade, the Guard's 189th Airlift Wing led the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP), which upgraded 1980s-era C-130H models built by Lockheed Martin with Boeing technology that included digital avionics and satellite-based communication systems.

About 220 H models were designated for the upgrade, but the 189th completed only five before the C-130 upgrade program was halted in early 2012 by the U.S. Department of Defense. At that time, approximately $1.7 billion had been spent on creating and starting the program.

Ator, the 189th's commander, said several factors led to the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program's suspension, including rising costs that put the price per upgrade at about $9 million. Also, the upgrades did not bring aircraft up to Communication Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management standards, the regulations that will soon prohibit the outdated aircraft from flying over parts of Europe and the U.S.

That's because those standards did not exist when the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program was developed, Ator said, adding, "Money was being dumped into the airplane to freshen it up, but it still wasn't compliant, and we'd be nowhere by 2020. We're not in a fiscal environment conducive to blowing $9 million per copy."

Ator also noted that his unit was concerned with the program because the 189th would have been tasked with training the nation's maintenance and flight crews in the upgraded C-130s in addition to their other mission of training maintenance and flight crews on legacy aircraft. The upgraded C-130Hs, now called C-130AMPs, were different enough to require separate schools and qualifications.

"We were very concerned that the training resourcing would be very, very hard to do," Ator said. "It would require a certain amount of aircraft and people; it just didn't make sense."

Future of AMP unknown

The Air Force suspended the program in 2012 and sought to terminate it in its fiscal 2013 budget. However, in the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress prohibited the Air Force from canceling the program.

Because the Avionics Modernization Program has been on pause -- not in motion but also not stopped altogether -- the Jacksonville base's five C-130AMPs remain parked on the flight line and have remained untouched except for regular maintenance.

Now, Congress is again looking at ways to get the Air Force's C-130 fleet up to regulation, whether that be through the Avionics Modernization Program or an alternative upgrade. Requirements for upgrades may be included in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2015, which starts Oct 1.

In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a Defense Appropriations Bill that included language to keep the C-130AMP.

However, some critics of the program are supporting a move to upgrade the aircraft in a cheaper and less-extensive manner while working to phase out the old model with C-130J replacements.

In the appropriations bill passed in July, U.S. Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and John Boozman, R-Ark. -- both members of the Senate Appropriations Committee -- included a provision calling for less-extensive upgrades.

Pryor, along with U.S. senators from Montana, Wyoming, Alaska and New York, also introduced legislation on Aug. 1 that would require upgrades to be completed by 2020 using no one specific program but bringing aircraft to Communication Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management standards on a case-by-case basis. The legislators intend to offer the bill as an amendment to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act.

"This allows the Air Force to modernize the fleet in another way that's at a lower cost," Pryor said after the appropriations bill was passed in July. "Since all C-130 pilots in the world come to Little Rock and do their training, we have a strong interest in the C-130 problem."

The National Guard's Ator said he is "absolutely behind" a less-extensive C-130H upgrade, one that would do just enough to bring about 130 aircraft to Communication Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management standards and allow more money to be spent toward replacing H models with J's.

The biggest piece of this upgrade would be outfitting the aircraft with digital radios, Ator said, a change that members of each wing could perform on their own fleets and one that would not require separate schools or qualifications.

"The high-frequency radio is a pretty antiquated system we've been using since World War II. There aren't many suppliers for that type of equipment anymore," Ator said. "We need to concentrate as an Air Force to get new airplanes to carry us into the next century."

Until the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act is passed, the future of the C-130AMP -- and the Hercules -- remains uncertain.

"We'll wait on a final decision to see whether or not it's a go."

Metro on 09/02/2014