FORT WALTON BEACH, Florida—U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) wants to progress quickly through long-awaited upgrades to the MC-130J aircraft through a different approach to addressing issues arising in test and more closely working with key contractors.
SOCOM and Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) are working through the series of upgrades to the Lockheed Martin airlifter, bringing it to the MC-130J Combat Talon III standard. The series of capability releases focus on airborne mission networking, terrain following/terrain avoidance radar, and radio frequency countermeasures, among others.
“We’re well underway with, frankly, a long-overdue and delayed program to modernize the MC-130J,” says Col. Justin Bronder, SOCOM’s program executive officer for fixed wing programs. “We go through deliberative processes of developmental test, operational test, we’ve got a rich, agile framework we use to get inputs and are able to take the next spiral of fixes we need for the MC-130J as we’re bringing all these new capabilities together.”
According to a presentation on the program last spring, AFSOC has fielded the first capability release for the upgrade, which included a new special mission system and defensive system upgrades. The next release is in integration and test, with a minimum viable product of a new auxiliary flight deck station, airborne mission networking systems and the APQ-187 Silent Knight terrain following/terrain avoidance radar. Full capability includes new radio frequency countermeasures, and updates to the airborne mission networking system and radar.
Bronder said that operational test of the upgrades have shown fixes will be needed, including to the airborne mission networking systems and the terrain-following radar. This has provided an opportunity to address fixes in different ways with a new team of experts who talk with those using the system who can triage what needs to be fixed quickly. This way the entire program does not need to be held up if, for example, smaller fixes can be addressed through publication tweaks or changes through the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.
Bronder pointed to the command working closely together with contractors, including Sierra Nevada Co. and Lockheed Martin, through the SOF Global Logistics Support Services to do extensive modifications quickly.
“They’re teaming together in new ways to kind of leverage the best of what they’re doing to get through those modifications more quickly and save months of aircraft availability as we push all those aircraft through the modification lines,” Bronder said during a presentation at the Special Air Warfare Symposium here.
