Greece set to buy six Italian C-130J Super Hercules

The Greek prime minister ordered the purchase of six second-hand C-130J Super Hercules from Italy, given the extremely low operational availability of the Hellenic Air Force’s current C-130B/H fleet.

According to Newpost media, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ intervention to provide an immediate solution to the severe problem of C-130 Hercules transport aircraft availability that has plagued the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) for at least two decades was prompted by the revelation that almost none of the aircraft were in flying condition.

No transport capacity

The plight of the C-130 fleet became public knowledge when trying to move the second Greek special disaster management team (EMAK) from the city of Thessaloniki to the Turkish city of Hatay, to join the first Greek EMAK team and Turkish and worldwide rescuers, in the rescue efforts of people trapped under the rubble left by the recent earthquake of 7.8 magnitude (equivalent to the explosion of 1,250,000 tons of TNT) on the Richter scale, which devastated central/southern Turkey and northern Syria.

The second EMAK team, consisting of 15 rescuers, a trained dog, 3 paramedics and an engineer officer from the Fire Brigade, was leaving Thessaloniki on Wednesday afternoon on an HAF C-130, but a technical malfunction forced the aircraft to land at Elefsina airport. The Greek rescuers were finally able to arrive in Turkey later, aboard a C-27J (much smaller than a Hercules), but without their equipment.

As a result of this situation, the prime minister asked for information and immediate proposals to put a definitive end to the problematic situation of the Air Force’s troubled fleet of transport aircraft, which has been giving problems for many years.

Second-hand Italian C-130Js

The solution they arrived at is the immediate purchase of second-hand C-130J Super Hercules transports, which the Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare) has for sale. Following direct contacts with Rome, Athens was informed that in a first phase the Italians have four C-130J transports available for sale, while in the following period they may sell another two to Greece, bringing the total to six. The HAF had already looked into the possibility of buying second-hand aircraft to deal with the problem and already knew that the Italians had C-130J transports available for sale, and in very good condition.

Aeronautica Militare previously operated 12 C-130Js and ten stretched C-130J-30s, which were delivered between May 2000 and February 2005, but several of them are currently in storage. These Super Hercules are also coveted by the Swedish Air Force, which has already acquired four as part of its capability modernization program, and would seek to acquire two more.

Meanwhile, improving maintenance

Parallel to the decision to buy the used Super Hercules from Italy, orders were given to expedite the maintenance of the three C-130s that are in the hangars of Hellenic Aerospace Industry (EAB) and as assured by those in charge, are to be delivered to the Air Force within 2023, with the first two by this summer.

In addition, Athens’ intention would also be to purchase some new C-130Js from the U.S., but if such an agreement were to materialize, it would be impossible to receive the first aircraft before 2026.

In any case, the inability to respond to the emergency of the catastrophic situation in Turkey, put on the public agenda the real state of the chronic lack of maintenance that plagued the Hellenic Air Force transport aircraft fleet, and activated the necessary political levers to provide a solution to this serious problem.