Canadian Forces cast about for used Hercules airframes

"Andrew Chaplin" wrote in message ...
National Pest article at http://tinyurl.com/onwo.

How realistic is this plan, anyway? Are there any C-130 airframes out
there to be had? Or, like John Cleese in the Cheese Shop sketch, is this
an act of the purest optimism on the part of the procurement folks to
pose the question in the first place.

Depends upon what they want to pay. The UK has already disposed of
some of its K models to Poland and Austria, and is going to be looking
to get rid of more, and IIRC LMCO took some K's back as part of the
sale of J models, and would be looking to sell the older aircraft as
well. Unlikely to find any USAF, to include ANG and AFRC, C-130's with
enough hours left on them to meet Canada's needs, though they do still
manage to scrape a few out of AMARC periodically to provide to other
nations (Bulgaria and South Africa being recent recipients of B
models, IIRC). If they are willing to use them, there are also a fair
number of civilian L-100's out there.

Brooks