SINGAPORE — Singapore has acquired legacy Lockheed-Martin C-130 Hercules transport aircraft to replace older C-130s, its air force chief said.
In his traditional media Q&A in the lead up to the Singapore Airshow, Maj. Gen. Kelvin Fan said that delivery of the second-hand C-130Hs to the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) to replace the C-130Bs in its inventory has begun.
“After thorough evaluations, we have determined that the C-130 remains the best platform to meet our operational needs for the next 15 to 20 years. The RSAF is therefore acquiring used, but still well-maintained, C-130H aircraft to replace our ageing C-130Bs,” he wrote.
Fan did not provide further details about how many C-130Hs that have been acquired or their origins, but open source information showed three C-130Hs arriving in country since mid-December.
The three planes that arrived in Singapore were a C-130H bearing US registration N974BA, KC-130H N973BA and C-130H-30 N977BA, with Breaking Defense observing the arrival of the last aircraft into Singapore on Jan. 30.
Public flight tracking information identified those planes as belonging to Blue Aerospace, a Florida-based company which is advertising two standard C-130H transports, a C-130H-30 with a stretched fuselage and a KC-130H tanker for sale. The company did not respond to questions by press time.
The US Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) online aircraft registry indicates that the registrations of both N973BA and N974BA were cancelled soon after their arrival in Singapore, a move that traditionally suggests that ownership has been transferred from Blue Aerospace.
The ex-Spanish aircraft date from 1976 and 1983 and have logged between 16,000 and just over 19,000 flight hours. They have previously been upgraded with improved avionics and digital glass cockpits, according to Blue Aerospace’s website. All four have been stored at a secure rural Spanish airport in low humidity until recently.
Singapore currently operates 10 legacy C-130s with 122 Squadron out of Paya Lebar air base split among four C-130Bs and six C-130Hs, with the B-models having been acquired beginning in 1977. Four of those B-models were second-hand when Singapore acquired them, making them over 60 years old.
The entire fleet was upgraded throughout the 2010s by Singapore’s ST Engineering with a new glass cockpit and improved communications, navigation and flight monitoring systems. It is possible that Singapore will want the equipment fit on these newly-acquired aircraft standardized with its existing fleet.