Maintenance of the RAAF’s fleet of 12 C-130J Hercules has been taken over by Australian Aerospace at RAAF Richmond following the awarding of an initial $292 million, five year through life support contract to the company at the Avalon Airshow earlier this year.
Supported by Lockheed Martin and StandardAero, Australian Aerospace will perform all routine deeper maintenance servicing on the C-130Js at Richmond, while the older C-130Hs which will continue to be supported by Qantas Defence Systems (QDS).
“The government expects a performance based contracting regime will improve the reliability of the C-130J through encouraging better innovation in maintenance practices and greater efficiency,” Greg Combet, Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, said in a November 17 statement.
Three C-130Js are deployed to the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO) and are regularly rotated back through the Richmond based fleet for servicing.
