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The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is the main military transport aircraft used by the aviation of the United States and other NATO countries. Strictly speaking, the C-130 is a whole family, since aircraft are used for various purposes - not only for the delivery of troops, military equipment and cargo, but also for conducting electronic intelligence, staff work, search and rescue operations, refueling other aircraft in the air, determining weather conditions, and so on.
But recently, more and more questions have been raised about the C-130 family: the military believes that aircraft need to be upgraded, given the difficult modern conditions.
An industrial conference of Special Operations Forces organized by the National Defense Industrial Association was held in Florida this week. It outlined considerations for the modernization of the C-130 family of aircraft in modern conditions.
As you know, the transport aircraft built back in the 1960s served many generations of military personnel who participated in combat operations around the world. Wherever the C-130 has not flown. But nowadays he is facing problems that were previously unknown. As noted by Rich Rodriguez, technical director of SOCOM, threats are growing, and this worsens the possibilities of using the aircraft.
Air Force Colonel Ken Kubler said that the best option is the introduction of autonomous technologies that would reduce the load on the flight crew. As the officer noted, it is necessary to reduce the number of crew and reduce the workload on it. A less busy crew would be able to concentrate more closely on performing combat missions and ensuring the safety of aircraft.
Rodriguez, in turn, noted that SOCOM has already observed the experiments of the Air Force Special Operations Command on an unmanned cockpit. However, he did not specify the details. Another speaker, Aviation Lieutenant Colonel Kevin McClure, stressed that now the C-130 modifications are receiving various updates with a lot of new equipment. The task of such updates is to ensure that numerous variants have common systems and would provide safer flights and refueling.
McClure noted.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Matt Ferch, one of the main tasks in the framework of the modernization of the C-130 will be the integration of the aircraft with a high-precision strike complex and the latest guidance systems. The aircraft should be able to "stand up for itself" in air combat, strike, determine targets, that is, perform functions that are somewhat unusual for an air transport vehicle. But such, according to the American military, is the modern reality – it is necessary to change the previous view of transport aviation.
Currently, the military notes, work is being carried out mainly in the direction of improving laser guidance systems. However, it is impossible to focus only on this segment: it is necessary to develop other areas of aircraft modernization.