So why did C130K go so long without ESF?
Tucumseh
You regularly appear on this forum whenever a thread touches on Air Safety (term deliberately chosen). You repeatedly state that the problems stem from the early 90s or thereabouts and were a deliberate act of policy by certain very senior individuals who also instigated severe budgetary cuts. This contrasts starkly with Haddon-Cave's view of the 90s as the "golden age". So assuming that the" golden age" in your view was prior to the early 90s, how come the system of the day didn't sort out Hercules ESF after its entry in service in the mid 60s in the nearly 30 years until the early 90s.
PS As an aside I was an EA with letter of delegation in the Aero engine MDG in AMSO's area which became AML's in the early to mid '90s. My experience of how airworthiness was managed was distinctly different to how you experienced it.