Several recent press reports have leapt onto the annual Pentagon operational test and evaluation report to question—again—the wisdom of fielding the Air Force’s newest Hercules, the C-130J. The report covers testing during Fiscal 2006 for a range of military systems, and says of the C-130J that it is “not effective … in a non-permissive threat environment.” The Air Force has not publicly commented on this latest report, however there is ample evidence that the J Model has performed very well in Southwest Asia since starting a “four-month” test that turned into a nearly two-year deployment. Air National Guard crews from California, Maryland, and Rhode Island took their C-130Js to SWA, where they turned in mission effectiveness rates above 95 percent, reports the Desert Eagle. Air Guard crews quickly adapted to the hostile environment, and it was partly the sterling J model performance that changed Donald Rumsfeld’s mind about canceling the program.
While the U.S. and its allies up their efforts to build out multi-orbit, multi-constellation satellite communications that are harder for an enemy to disrupt, officials noted technical and cost challenges, particularly for the user in the field.