Some aircraft, like the British Spitfire, American F-86 Sabre, DC-3 Dakota, Soviet MiG-21 and others, make a great deal of history and remain part of future history. The famous US-made C-130 cargo aircraft named Hercules from the Lockheed Martin stable of which nearly 2,200 aircraft have been manufactured in 40-odd variants and sold to 60 countries worldwide is clearly one of them. Six of this type in the latest version, which is now in the process of also equipping the US Air Force, would be part of the Indian Air Force inventory in the not too distant future now that the Indian and US governments have signed the Letter of Offer and Acceptance.
The deal reflects the changes in the international order over the decades since the aircraft was designed in 1950 and entered service in USAF in 1956. One US Air Force squadron briefly served in India carrying vital supplies for our army in the Himalayas after November 1962. New Delhi had tried very hard to obtain two C-130 aircraft in 1980-82 for the Department of Ocean Development to provide logistics supply to our scientific mission in Antarctica. What was needed was a big enough transport aircraft with skis to enable it to land on ice on the frozen continent. But Washington would simply not sell us the two aircraft (though it signed the MoU on transfer of sensitive technology in 1983) on the flimsy grounds that US military technology would leak to the Soviets (remember the Second Cold War had only recently begun), and that India would use the aircraft for bombing (a role it was fully capable of, if modified for it) from its cargo hold dropping 20 tons of bombs in one go! Ultimately, we used Argentine assistance for logistics.
The six aircraft IAF will get would be the ‘Super Hercules’ 130-J version, capable of 5,200-km range with nearly 20-tons of payload for around $800 million. This version is the most suitable for special operations and is specifically equipped with a range of systems for the mission in the USAF. The IAF version would no doubt include the type of systems specified by us.
To the uninitiated, the Hercules would appear an old aircraft. But the 130-J version is being manufactured for the USAF now. This also marks a clear shift in US perceptions about India. Pentagon’s request to the Congress for the sale acknowledged India as an...
