C-130J for Indonesian Air Force
Indonesia signed a contract for five Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules aircraft. The Indonesian Air Force chief, Marshal Fadjar Prasetyo, was photographed next to the first C-130J-30 (construction number 382-5951) at Lockheed Martin's Hercules production line at Marietta (GA).
The aircraft have been bought under a Direct Commercial Sales contract. It was stated that this contract was already signed in 2019, but this has not been formally announced. The delivery schedule of the new transporters has not been reported yet.
In December 2018, Scramble Magazine already reported that the Tentara Nasional Indonesia - Angkatan Udara (TNI-AU, Indonesian Air Force) identified the C-130J Super Hercules as their future transport aircraft and that it will most probably procure five aircraft as an initial order.
On 27 December 2018, it was reported that the procurement process (that started already in the summer of 2018) had been carried out, so the only thing left now was the inking inking of the contract.
The TNI-AU still operates a C-130B and KC-130B fleet that was procured second-hand in the early sixties. The Bravo's were reinforced with second-hand L-100s and C-130Hs in the eighties. The whole, some twenty aircraft, is aging and must be replace soon.
The TNI-AU Hercules aircraft are operated by Skadron Udara 17 and Skadron Udara 31, both part of Wing Udara 1, at Jakarta/Halim Perdana Kusuma, Skadron Udara 33 (Wing Udara 5) at Ujung Pandang/Hasanuddin and Skadron Udara 32 (Wing Udara 2) at Malang/Abdul Rahman Saleh. The current overview according to the Scramble magazine database is:
Photo by Lockheed Martin