Originally Posted by
pr00ne
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I thought that the 20 new were to replace old C-130's and the Spartan (C-27J) fleet?
Thats a grey area. The C-27 are going to be allocated to non military tasking like disaster response and SAR. They will be flown by the military but have non military taskings, for SAR last year they were testing airdrpped life rafts and stuff from them.
The talk is that the new 20 will be replacing the old 12, that will happen at some stage. But as it stands now, I think the 20 are being purchased to cover the decrease in airlift capability due the C-27 going out and losing some of the C-130 airframes to the upgrade process