During the official visit of the Commander of the United States Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, to Argentina, the Ministry of Defense confirmed the transfer of the Hercules C-130H TC-60 aircraft to the Argentine Air Force. The news was announced following the conclusion of the meeting between the U.S. high command and the Minister of Defense, Luis Petri.
Received in the middle of last year, the Hercules C-130H TC-60 “Pioneros de la Aviación Militar” had been incorporated into the Argentine Air Force under a leasing arrangement. Since then, it has been part of the 1st Air Transport Group based at El Palomar Air Base, located in the province of Buenos Aires. Its definitive transfer to the Argentine Air Force is excellent news for the 1st Transport Squadron, which currently operates the K/C-130H Hercules fleet. At present, some of its aircraft are undergoing scheduled maintenance work, such as TC-69, which is in the final stages of completing its PDM.
The Ministry of Defense has highlighted the definitive incorporation of this Hercules C-130H as further evidence of the solid defense cooperation between Argentina and the United States, which will also be strengthened in new areas such as cyber defense, disaster preparedness, and community support.
In recent years, the United States has been transferring Hercules C-130H aircraft from the U.S. Air Force. This is evidenced by the transfers made to Colombia and Chile, with each country receiving two aircraft, and more recently, to Ecuador.
Finally, regarding the future of TC-60 now that it is part of the Argentine Air Force, its avionics modernization by FAdeA is being evaluated to ensure it has the same configuration as the rest of the K/C-130H fleet of the 1st Air Transport Group. This was explained last year by the then Brigadier General Xavier Isaac upon the aircraft’s arrival at El Palomar.
The then Chief of the General Staff of the Argentine Air Force (now the current Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces) explained to the media present: “We have purchased the modernization kit over a year ago. Since this was going around, but we never said it because there were a lot of factors involved. We always talked about the Tango-Charly-100 (TC-100) that is at FAdeA. Undoubtedly, it is much friendlier to modernize an ‘H’, similar to the five we already had. With what has happened now, we are going through the eleven-month leasing period to see if we can advance it. We will work on that. And from there, the kit is for this aircraft. Undoubtedly. So, this will be the sixth one modernized”.
*Photographs used for illustrative purposes.
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