Originally Posted by Always a Sapper
Is there any chance that some usable wings could be sourced from the scrappy at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in the US?
Doubtful. Most of the C-130E (similar vintage to the K) are there precisely because of cracks & no useable life left w/o re-winging (more specifically, the centre wing box (CWB)).
Lockheed do not use airframe hours, instead use equivalent baseline hours (EBH). Sortie details are input into a computer program and a severity factor (SF) is assigned to each portion of the sortie. The flight time for that segment is then multiplied by the SF for that segment to arrive at EBH.
For example, MCT has an average SF of about 3, whilst low-flying has an average SF of closer to 9. There are many variables, of coures, relating to weight, speed, altitude, etc.
Currently, US CWB are restricted at 38K EBH and grounded at 45K EBH. Most of the birds sat in AMARC are somewhere between 38K-45K EBH on them already & would require a new CWB fitted to return to service.
CWB are in short supply as Lockheed can only produce approximately 30-35 per year, of which all current J-model production is pulled and others are sent to the various depots to replace the few acft that are deemed vital with new CWB (AC-130U, MC-130H, HC-130H, etc.) - mainly special mission aircraft.
There are other programmes out there that refurbish CWB vice all out replacement, but they have a limited life compared to replacement.