317th Airlift Wing receives newest C-130J Super Hercules

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Katherine Miller
  • 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Members assigned to the 317th Airlift Wing welcomed the newest C-130J Super Hercules home to Dyess from Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., Oct. 12, 2017.

The aircraft, which was recently built and produced by Lockheed Martin, is the most recent C-130J aircraft off of the production line with only 10 total flight hours upon arriving at Dyess.

“As you look at the C-130J model fleet across all of Air Mobility Command, we’re continuing to increase the J-models into the active duty bases,” said Col. William Maxwell, 317th Maintenance Group commander. “And we’ve received this aircraft as a part of fleet-wide redistribution.”

The redistribution across various bases is set in place by AMC to ensure each base can sustain their current operations when the aircraft are due for their major inspections, which occurs every 10 years.

“The C-130J’s have a program depo-maintenance schedule that is recurring on this aircraft,” said Maxwell. “If we have all of the aircraft at a single base from a single year, all those aircraft have to go through that depo-maintenance schedule at the same time. So AMC’s effort to redistribute the fleet helps to level that impact across all of the different bases.”

Dyess began receiving the J-model in 2010 and have not received any more since 2012. However, the 317th AW is anticipating the arrival of two more C-130J’s within the next year, which will make for 28 aircraft assigned to the wing.

“The brand new aircraft will replace an older aircraft, which will then be transferred to Yokota Air Base, Japan,” said Senior Master Sgt. William Ellsworth, 317th Maintenance Group superintendent. “Once we get all of these in, having 28 aircraft will allow us to better support every tactical airlift mission that comes down the pipe.”

The 317th AW sent their own maintainers and operators to receive the aircraft as well as meet the Lockheed Martin production team.

“It gave them a chance to not only get to see this aircraft right there at the production line, but to meet the people on the production team,” said Maxwell. “Also, they were able to speak to the people at Lockheed Martin that are building these aircraft every day, express the story of the Air Force to those contractors that are building the aircraft and help them understand the impact they’re having around the world.”