Air Force Buying 48 More Special-Mission C-130Js: The Air Force has added 48 MC-130J special operations aircraft to its HC/MC-130J recapitalization program of record, increasing the intended buy from 74 to 122 airframes. Thirty-two of the newly added MC-130Js will supplant Air Force Special Operations Command’s MC-130H/W fleets, service officials told the Daily Report. The other 16 airframes will undergo post-production conversion to AC-130J gunships, they said. The plans for the original 74 HC/MC-130Js remain unchanged: Air Combat Command is acquiring 37 HC-130J combat rescue tankers to replace its 1960s-era HC-130P fleet, while AFSOC is getting 37 MC-130Js in order to retire its legacy MC-130E/P inventory. Because of the added 48 airframes, the projected costs of the HC/MC-130J program have gone up by more than 60 percent from $8.8 billion to $14.1, according to the Pentagon’s most recent selected acquisition reports that went to Congress last month.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.