Force Now Operates C-130H and KC-130R

The Chilean Air Force (FACH) has decommissioned its last (of four) C-130B Hercules. It is destined for the National Aeronautical and Space Museum (MNAE), where it recently arrived disassembled.

FACH’s extant Hercules fleet, therefore, is comprised of three KC-130Rs and four C-130Hs.

The C-130Bs were received 1991-1992 from USAF stocks, supplementing the two C-130s received in 1972. Three of them served relatively brief operational lives, retiring by 2005, but the fourth remained in service. The arrival of four KC-130Rs in 2015-2016 (one of which was lost crossing the Drake Passage in 2019) meant that the ‘B’ was marginalised. To replace the loss and the ‘B,’ two additional second-hand C-130H were procured in 2021 – though neither has yet entered operational service.

Separately, speculation continues that the Boeing 707 Condor, now decommissioned, may also be sent to the MNAE once the next E-3D Sentry enters FACH service.

Santiago Rivas in Buenos Aires for MON