I am afraid that I must disagree with your comments based upon information on the Herky Bird site.
The RAAF C130A's and the RC130A's that followed them down the line we were always taught were different in at least materials than the earlier ones and on the Lockheed service bulitens there is a great deal of information in regard to the materials changes and what was hoped to be achieved.
My information on the fall off of the H model came from serving members relatess to periods long before they had been operating in the sand pit.
The real problem is that we are finding the same problems with centre section life as every other air force in the world, the rest of the airplane operating hours are caused by weakness of the centre section. The design of the centre section does not vary from a fatique point of view from model to model and that is the real problem and it needs to be understood that is the real weakness of airframe life. The J model as the RAF has found out is going to have exactly the same problem.
A C130 with external tanks (one seldom sees them flying without them) caries a fuel load of 65,000lbs, the RAAF always has flown its H models on a lower TIT setting which increases engine life and lowers fuel consumption. I can assure you that only when we were hitting strong headwinds and could not climb to a better altitude for fuel flow would we divert to pick up fuel.
There was great pressure from on high not to land prematurely because all of the trips were MEDAVACS and anywhere we landed would cause great problems because of the temperatures on the ground.
A C130E with and average fuel flow can do 16 hours before the tank lights come on because we used to average 3800lbs consumption per hour.
Regards
Col