TSAMTO, May 26. The American company Lockheed Martin has rolled out the first military transport aircraft C-130J "Super Hercules", intended for the Algerian Air Force.
According to Scramble Magazine, the first C-130J aircraft with the registration number 7T-WJA (production number unknown) he was seen at a company in Greenville (pc.South Carolina) May 23. Algerian pilots and maintenance crews are currently being trained in the United States.
In March, the Algerian resource Menadefense.net he said that the aircraft had been planned to be ordered for a long time, but the signing of the contract was delayed for a long time due to the delay in the approval of the contract in the "Foreign Military Sales" (FMS) system, since Algeria included some types of sensitive equipment in the delivery package, which required additional approvals. It was noted that the first four aircraft (the total volume of the order is not specified) will arrive in the country in late March or early April. It is obvious that the information about the delivery dates turned out to be unreliable.
During the 1980s, Algeria acquired 20 C-130 Hercules aircraft, which entered service with the 2nd Tactical Transport Wing in the 312th, 322nd and 332nd squadrons. At the moment, the Algerian Air Force operates 15 aircraft after four crashes between 2003 and 2018, and the fifth was transferred to the state airline.
At the moment, it is not clear whether the new C-130J aircraft will complement the existing C-130 fleet to make up for previously lost vehicles, or begin to gradually replace them. In the early 2000s, all 15 C-130s of the Algerian Air Force were repaired and upgraded.
The Algerian Air Force will become the second operator of the new C-130J in the North African region after the Tunisian Air Force, which purchased two C-130J-30 aircraft between 2013 and 2014. The Moroccan Air Force also plans to purchase the C-130J in the next few years.
According to Scramble Magazine, the Algerian Air Force also ordered four Russian IL-76MD-90A military transport aircraft, but there is no reliable data on the delivery schedule for these machines at the moment.
