Turkey acquires former RAF Hercules
- Turkey acquires former RAF Hercules
By
David Willis
22nd October 2025
News
The acquisition of 12 former RAF C-130J Hercules by Turkey was recently confirmed.
A Turkey Ministry of National Defence spokesperson, Rear Admiral Zeki Akturk, stated during the weekly press conference with local journalists on October 16, 2025, that the purchase of the transport aircraft had been finalised. He said the C-130Js “will be gradually incorporated into our air force inventory following the completion of maintenance and modernisation in the United Kingdom under the signed contract”. Four days later, Marshall Aerospace announced it had secured a contract from the ministry to support the fleet.
The company has signed a multi-year agreement to cover the service entry of the 12 C-130Js and their sustainment once they are operational in Turkey. The deal also includes scheduled maintenance and the provision of spares and the tooling required. The company will provide training, so that Turkey can build up an indigenous capability to support the aircraft; according to Rear Admiral Akturk, “the maintenance and upkeep of the C-130J aircraft will be carried out domestically after the corresponding training for the purchased aircraft type.” It has not been confirmed if this support will be provided by the Türk Hava Kuvvetleri’s (Turkish Air Force, TuAF) own maintenance organisation or by local industry, which includes Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), responsible for upgrading the ‘legacy’ models currently in service.
Representatives of Turkish and Marshall Aerospace at Cambridge, during the transfer of title of former RAF C-130J Hercules. Marshall Aerospace
Wing box replacement
Marshall Aerospace acted as the principal retail partner for the transports on behalf of the UK Defence Equipment & Support’s Export & Sales office. Since the Hercules C4 (C-130J-30) and Hercules C5 (C-130J) fleets were withdrawn by the RAF, the fleet has sat at Cambridge Airport, with the company responsible for the storage of the aircraft and on-going anti-deterioration maintenance while a buyer was sought for the aircraft. The RAF retired the last of its C-130Js in June 2023.
Although the exact version of the Hercules to be acquired has not been stated by Turkish sources, most if not all of the aircraft deal will be the stretched C-130J-30s. A total of 13 of that version (ZH865 to ZH879, minus ZH873 and ZH876 written-off in RAF service in August 2017 and February 2007, respectively) have been stored at Cambridge since 2022 and 2023, while just two of the short fuselage C-130Js (ZH888 and ZH889) remain at the airport. The other ‘standard’ C-130Js were sold to Bahrain (two) and Bangladesh (five), while a single example went to the US Navy as a support aircraft for the ‘Blue Angels’ flight demonstration squadron.
Air Force
Each of the 12 Hercules will have its centre wing box replaced prior to delivery to the TuAF. The RAF’s C-130J Hercules were among the first examples delivered and were fitted with the first version of the unit, qualified for 45,000 hours. The wing box’s life is calculated in terms of equivalent hours, which takes into account the conditions the aircraft operates in; more demanding operations speed up the accumulation of equivalent hours beyond the 1:1 ratio of actual flight hours. The RAF fleet saw considerable use, often operating from unprepared airstrips in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since 2009 Lockheed Martin has installed the Enhanced Service Life wing box in new production C-130J variants, which initially had double the life of the original unit, although recent research offers the potential of up to 122,500 hours. Marshalls has completed nearly 80 wing box replacements on C-130Js and earlier C-130 variants. According to the company, as part of the process “the fuselage must be brought back to original production tolerances, with much of the structure re-assembled to ‘as-new’ condition.” Its first wing box replacement project for a C-130J took 14 months to complete, although this was subsequently reduced to 10 months for later upgrades. Marshall Aerospace is the only organisation outside the United States to have successfully completed a C-130J centre wing box replacement.
Turkish Hercules
Turkey has operated Hercules since December 1964, when the first of five
C-130Es was delivered for 222. Filo ‘Alev’ at Erkilet-Kayseri. A further three C-130Es were received between September 1971 and February 1974, while from March 1991 to August 1992 seven former US Air Force C-130Bs were delivered, one of which returned to the United States in May 2002. The fleet was augmented by the arrival of six C-130Es acquired from Saudi Arabia in 2010, while a local avionics upgrade programme, managed by TAI and known as Erciyes, was implemented on all the surviving aircraft. The upgraded Hercules became C-130BMs or ‘EMs, depending on the baseline model of the airframe. Around 19 of the aircraft remain available to the Turkish Air Force.
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Turkish interest in the former RAF C-130Js first came to light in late 2024, when it was reported Ankara would acquire the transports as part of a $740m deal. Once in service with Turkey the C-130Js are initially expected to augment the C-130BM/EM fleet and remove some of the burden on the ten Airbus A400Ms also operated. The Erciyes upgrade was expected to allow the C-130BM/EMs to remain in service into the 2040s, although it is probable that some of the older airframes will be retired as sufficient C-130Js become operational.
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