C-130 Hercules in Poland
One of the Romanian C-130B Hercules, which was also offered to Poland in the 90s. In the end, Romania took the risk of taking possession of this type of transport, which is still in use today.
According to political statements, the first of five Lockheed Martin C-130H Hercules medium transport aircraft supplied by the US government under the EDA procedure is due to be delivered to Poland this year. The above event is another important moment in the history of S-130 transport workers in Poland, which is already more than a quarter of a century old.
The Ministry of National Defense has not yet announced when the first of the five aircraft will arrive in Poland. According to available data, two of the selected aircraft were inspected and repaired, which allowed a delivery flight from the Davis-Monthan base in Arizona, USA, to the Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze No. 2 SA in Bydgoszcz, where they must undergo a thorough design review combined with modernization. The first of them (85-0035) is being prepared for distillation to Poland from August 2020. In January of this year. similar work was done on instance 85-0036. So far, there is no information about what side numbers they will carry in the Air Force, but it seems logical to continue the numbers assigned to the Polish C-130E at the time - this would mean that the “new” C-130H will receive military side numbers 1509-1513. Whether this is so, we will soon find out.
First Approach: C-130B
As a result of the systemic transformation that took place at the turn of the 80s and 90s, and taking a course towards rapprochement with the West, Poland joined, among other things, the Partnership for Peace program, which was an initiative for the integration of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe into NATO structures. One of the key elements was the ability of the new states to cooperate with the North Atlantic Alliance in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations. At the same time, this was due to the adoption of Western standards along with new (modernized) weapons and military equipment. One of the areas in which the "new discovery" had to be made first was military transport aviation.
The end of the Cold War also meant significant reductions in NATO defense budgets and a significant reduction in the armed forces. In the wake of global detente, the United States has undertaken, in particular, the reduction of the fleet of transport aircraft. Among the surplus were the older C-130 Hercules medium transport aircraft, which were a variant of the C-130B. Due to their technical condition and operational potential, the federal administration in Washington submitted an offer to admit at least four transporters of this type to Poland - according to the declarations submitted, they were to be transferred free of charge, and the future user had to pay the costs of training flight and technical personnel , distillation and possible overhauls associated with the restoration of flight condition and changes in the layout. The American initiative was also prompt, because at that time the 13th transport aviation regiment from Krakow operated the only copy of the An-12 medium transport aircraft, which was soon to be decommissioned. However, the American proposal was ultimately not approved by the leaders of the Department of National Defense, which was mainly due to budgetary constraints.
Romania and Poland were the first former Warsaw Pact countries to be offered to purchase used C-130B Hercules transport aircraft.
In addition to Poland, Romania received an offer to accept the C-130B Hercules transport aircraft under similar conditions, to which the authorities responded positively. Ultimately, four transporters of this type, after several months at the Davis-Montan test site in Arizona and carrying out structural checks at the logistics center, were transferred to the Romanians in 1995-1996. Systematically refurbished and undergoing minor upgrades, the C-130B is still used by the Romanian Air Force. In recent years, the fleet of Romanian Hercules has increased by two copies in the C-130H version. One was purchased from Italy and the other was donated by the US Department of Defense.
Mission problems: C-130K and C-130E
Poland's accession to NATO in 1999 led to more active participation of the Polish Army in foreign missions. Moreover, despite the ongoing program to modernize transport aviation, operations in Afghanistan, and then in Iraq, showed a shortage of equipment that was difficult to fill, including. due to time and budget possibilities. For this reason, medium transport aircraft began to be sought from the allies - the United States and Great Britain.
