California Air Guard receives 150th Hercules cargo plane
California is now home to the 150th C-130J Super Hercules to come off the Lockheed Martin assembly line. No. 150 was delivered earlier this month.
The military cargo plane is the latest in the Hercules line, which has been in continuous production longer than any other military aircraft of its type in the world.
The milestone aircraft is the eighth and final C-130J assigned to the 146th Airlift Wing, the California Air National Guard unit at Channel Islands Air National Guard Base near Oxnard, Calif. California s 146th Airlift Wing has just returned from a 20-month deployment to Iraq, where their Super Hercules aircraft were used as part of a C-130J joint force deployment. During the deployment, four C-130Js were flown on 5,444 sorties totaling 10,750 flight hours and the aircraft delivered 12,681 tons of cargo and carried 70,350 passengers.
Lockheed Martin C-130Js are used for troop and equipment resupply via ground delivery and airdrop, for air-to-air refueling, ground refueling and humanitarian relief.
The worldwide fleet of C-130Js has now exceeded 350,000 flight hours.
Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin employs about 140,000 people worldwide and reported 2006 sales of $39.6 billion.
California Air Guard receives 150th Hercules cargo plane
