PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC

Congressional move puts multi-year 64 aircraft procurement plan at risk despite air force confidence

The US Air Force is confident of meeting a new Congressional stipulation that the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules be certified as operationally effective and suitable as a condition for approved funding in the fiscal year 2003 budget.

The move is vital if multi-year procurement (MYP) of 64 aircraft is to begin. But on its current schedule the air force will not be ready to declare an initial operational capability (IOC) before late FY04.

"They are looking for a commitment or an assurance that we are on track for a successful dedicated operational test and evaluation. We anticipate that happening later this year, and at this point we believe we're on track," says Col Bob Hudson, chief of the USAF's theatre airlift, special operations and trainer division. The C-130J programme is still in the process of addressing system shortcomings highlighted by an initial phase of testing.

The air force claims to have addressed 50 deficiencies and completed qualification testing of the Block 5.3 mission software. Another 43 issues remain to be fixed, and the C-130J fleet has still to be upgraded from the 5.2 software standard, which has been plagued by false alarms, to the new 5.3. The aircraft will not reach full operational capability until Block 5.4 is fielded, which will include an integrated self-defence capability. But the US Marine Corps plans to declare IOC next year with Block 5.3.

At stake is procurement over five years for 40 stretched CC-130Js (formerly the C-130J-30), which the air force wants to start in 2004 with an initial four aircraft, and a USMC six-year buy of 24 KC-130J tankers beginning next year. The 27 USAF and 11 marine corps aircraft ordered to date were funded on an annual incremental basis, compared to which the MYP promises to save the air force $420 million and the USMC $235 million.

Beyond Block 5.4, the USAF has mapped out a spiral development plan calling for the delivery of updated software every two years, with funding for Block 6.0 starting next year, followed by Block 7.0 in 2005, Block 9.0 in 2007 and Block 9 in 2009. "Blocks 6-8 will be predominantly focused on GATM [global air traffic management] compliance as we believe we will have fixed most of the mission essential deficiencies in Block 5.3/5.4," says Lt Col Brian Dougherty, of the USAF chief tactical airlift branch.

The C-130J is equipped with GPS satellite navigation, protected instrument landing system and a traffic alert collision avoidance system. It is certificated for required navigation performance 5 already. Capabilities planned to be added include a multimode receiver, voice satellite communications, improved GPS, controller-pilot datalink and 8.33kHz VHF radio.

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Source: Flight International