AFMC Command News

Newest 'Herc' propelled through Phase 2 testing

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Francesca Carrano
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
C-130J test teams from Edwards concluded Phase 2 Operational Test and Evaluation testing on Dec. 21 after more than 300 hours of OT&E flight test activities. It culminates nearly five years of developmental and operational testing.

The C-130J is the latest addition to the C-130 fleet. It provides 40 percent more range and flies 24 percent faster than the C-130E and H-models.

Beginning its journey toward full capability, the C-130J went through Phase 1 OT&E testing in 1999 and 2000 evaluating the aircraft in its basic airland mission, which is the transport of cargo from airfield to airfield.

As the C-130J moved toward aircraft maturity, block upgrades were added. Aircraft block upgrades are hardware and software modifications. These mostly deal with the mission computers, which run the aircraft's software.

The last block upgrade, Block 5.4, encompassed many areas. It focused on the airdrop system and the formation positioning system of the C-130J, according to Lt. Col Mike Brignola. He is the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center mission support and division chief for the C-130J OT&E.

The Air Force Flight Test Center completed the developmental testing on the system upgrades in June 2005, allowing the Phase 2 operational testing to begin in October.

The Phase 2 OT&E was divided into four segments conducted mainly out of Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark.

"During the first (segment), test teams flew up to eight-ship formations in the local area of Little Rock in training type scenarios," Colonel Brignola said. "They went through routes in formation and then into the objective area for an airdrop."

Three types of airdrops were tested: heavy equipment, personnel and container delivery system.

From there teams moved to the second segment, a Joint Readiness Training Center exercise in conjunction with the Army at Fort Polk, La.

"This was a simulated combat environment," said Maj. Stan Ebner, Detachment 3, Air Mobility Command Test and Evaluation Squadron commander. "With small, hard-to-find drop zones, this really tested the limits of the crews and the airplanes."

It involved landing in austere landing zones, bringing in Army troops and then re-supplying the troops through airdrops.

"This was kind of a graduation exercise," Colonel Brignola said. "One of the main thrusts of the Phase 2 test was to see if the C-130J and its crews were ready to conduct their mission in its wartime environment."

The third segment was a cold weather deployment to Eielson AFB, Alaska. This segment tested the ability of the aircraft and its avionics to continue its mission through the extreme weather conditions.

The final segment was completed in a simulator at Keesler AFB, Miss. Simulators were used during this portion of the test to evaluate crews' workloads in high-stress situations.

"You can test scenarios in a simulator that you can't really do in an aircraft, ones that could be harmful to the crew," Colonel Brignola said. A simulated environment allows these factors to be somewhat controlled, creating a safe environment for this portion of the test, said the colonel.

Throughout testing, maintenance crews provided operational expertise and assessed the reliability, effectiveness, survivability and aircraft performance of the C-130J.

"Our job was to ensure that the C-130J was supportable from a maintenance standpoint," said Chief Master Sgt. Isaac Fabunan, Det. 3, AMC TES superintendent.

From technical orders to mission capable rates, mean repair times and fix rates, maintainers assessed how the C-130J compares to the legacy C-130s, he said.

"There are two sides to what we hope is accomplished by these tests," Chief Fabunan said. "From the operational side, we're trying to get the new capabilities identified in the test released so we can pass them on to the guys in the field to use in the wartime environment. For the maintenance side, we identified and hope to get the deficiencies we saw in the test fixed for future C-130J users."

With completion of the Phase 2 testing the C-130J test team here is analyzing the data and should have a final AFOTEC report by March.