New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) is in need of replacing their five aging C-130H Hercules aircraft. This week, they chose the C-130J Super Hercules to be the replacement. New Zealand’s Defense Minister signed off on the $1 billion New Zealand dollars ($659.5 U.S. dollars) purchase.
The C-130J was chosen after New Zealand considered its range and payload capabilities while also meeting the New Zealand Defense Force’s (NZDF) requirements for the aging 1960’s era C-130 replacements. The choice of the replacement was between the C-130J and Airbus’ A400M transport.
The Super Hercs order is part of New Zealand’s wish list of planned defense spending of $20 billion New Zealand dollars (13+ billion U.S. dollars). The list includes acquiring new boats, satellites, and high-tech military equipment.
Currently, New Zealand also operates the six P-3K Orion anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft. Last year, New Zealand also agreed to buy four P-8A Poseidon planes to upgrade their aging P-3 fleet.
Read Reuters Article: New Zealand selects Lockheed C-130J as preferred military transport replacement
Long term sustainment capabilities for your C-130 Hercules
Since the C-130 is over six decades old, it has several problems with diminishing manufacturing sources (DMS). To avoid scrapping repairable electronic equipment on aging platforms like the C-130, operators need to identify capable sources that can use reverse engineering and re-manufacturing processes to repair, overhaul, or modify broken or missing parts that no longer exist. This is equally true when repairing assemblies and subassemblies of the Azimuth-Range Indicators identified as the IP-988 PN: 657303-1 from the APQ-122(V) or the IP-1043 PN: 692760-1 of the Radar Set APQ-122(V)5.
A qualified Depot Level Maintenance (D-Level) facility can eliminate the need to scrap repairable equipment by identifying the faults in malfunctioning equipment and repairing them quickly. With aging equipment, supporting technical data can be nonexistent, stopping repairs in their tracks. Finding a qualified depot that has the ability to reverse engineer obsolete technology and manufacture unavailable parts is essential to returning functional mission-critical systems back to aircraft and ground systems.
Military Electronic Repair Services
As a D-Level Maintenance facility and qualified repair station, Duotech provides Military Electronics Repair Services. Duotech provides a full range of military equipment repair services, including a wide variety of electronic and electromechanical systems, communications and RF, and power systems. With over 35 years of industry experience, Duotech Services, Inc. maintains an AS9100D and ISO 9001 certifications with the scope of repair, design, production (including CNC machining and laser cutting), testing and overhaul services.
Contact Duotech Services today about your MRO needs. Duotech has the capability to repair thousands of different items. Begin your search for you Part Number here or request a Quote for Repair now.
