New tankers being delivered to USAF rescue units

ARTICLE: Combat King II

Lockheed Martin delivered the first of 11 HC- 130J Combat King II personnel recovery aircraft to the United States Air Force’s Air Combat Command (ACC).

It’s about time.  These versatile aircraft will be well used by tanker squadrons in the USAF CSAR community.  There’s a lot that can be done with these aircraft beyond just passing has to the intrepid HH-60G, and I’m confident the new HC-130 aircraft will be put to the test immediately.

That being said, I called them “tankers” purposefully, even though I know that the de rigeur term now is the”fixed wing rescue platform.”  I have written previously about the USAF CSAR community losing its soul–that type of silly word play is part of the problem.  I am very much aware of what the HC-130s are capable of (and I believe those capabilities should be developed and rehearsed), but when the tanker community loses sight of its reason for existance–refueling helicopters–that is the end of dedicated rescue tankers.

[Apologies for the spartan appearance of this post.  I’m at Camp Atterbury, Indiana for pre-deployment training (getting ready for a 6 month deployment to Afghanistan) and I’m forced to blog from my phone…]