Heavy Lift were used during the Falklands conflict to move items down to ASI. The 'Bel Slow' was used due to its ability to take long items that would not fit into a LWB C130 that are particularly usefull to the Navy.
I have been deployed to Norway in a Norwegen C130 because the RAF was short of AT at the time.
When the Fighting First deployed to Nellis AFB in the 90s most of the kit went out in two 727 Freighters.
So no, nothing new.