Australia to buy 20 US C-130 Hercules for $6.6 billion.
The United States will sell Australia 20 C-130 Hercules aeroplanes for a total price of $6.6 billion. Following the approval by the United States Congress the previous year of a larger sale of 24 of the propellor-driven aircraft developed by Lockheed Martin, this statement was made.
CANBERRA: Australia announced Monday that it will purchase 20 new C-130 Hercules from the United States in a 9.8 billion Australian dollar ($6.6 billion) agreement, doubling the size of the second-largest heavy transport aircraft in the Australian air force’s fleet.
The announcement comes after a larger sale of 24 of the propeller-driven aircraft made by Lockheed Martin was approved by the US Congress last year.
As global concerns over an increasingly assertive China grow, the United States and Australia are presently conducting their biannual Talisman Sabre military exercise near the Australian coast. This year, 13 nations and more than 30,000 soldiers are participating.
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy stated that the first of the new four-engine Hercules is anticipated to be delivered in 2027 and that the new aircraft will eventually replace the fleet of 12 Hercules that the Royal Australian Air Force now operates from RAAF Base Richmond close to Sydney.
The acquisition “will almost double the fleet and represents a massive uplift in capability, in mobility, and in transport for the Royal Australian Air Force,” Conroy told reporters.
The crucial factor, according to Conroy, is that by nearly tripling the fleet, we can deploy them on more operations at once.
Eight of the larger Boeing C-17A Globemaster heavy transport jets are also flown by the Australian Air Force.
The agreement was made official before U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with their Australian counterparts this week in Brisbane, Australia, for their annual summit.
In less than two months, Blinken has made three trips to Asia, underscoring American efforts to check China’s expanding influence in the region.
The USS Canberra was commissioned in Sydney on Saturday, underscoring the two countries’ growing military ties. The first American warship to be commissioned in a foreign port was the Austal-built Independence-variant littoral combat ship.
The first Canberra was a U.S. cruiser that was built in 1943 and was named after the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra, which was torpedoed by the Japanese in 1942 while assisting U.S. Marines with landings in the Solomon Islands and resulted in a loss of 193 lives. The capital of Australia serves as the name of the Australian warship.
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