page_title: Lockheed C-130 Hercules in Australian service
section_title: Introduction into service
hierarchical_section_title: Lockheed C-130 Hercules in Australian service / Operational service / Introduction into service
caption_attribution_description: A Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed C-130E Hercules aircraft (s/n A97-180) from No. 37 Squadron carrying support personnel and equipment for exercise "Cope Thunder" at Clark Air Base, Philippines, on 12 November 1981.
context_page_description: The Royal Australian Air Force has operated forty-eight Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. The type entered Australian service in December 1958, when No. 36 Squadron accepted the first of twelve C-130As, replacing its venerable Douglas C-47 Dakotas. The acquisition made Australia the first operator of the Hercules after the United States. In 1966 the C-130As were joined by twelve C-130Es, which equipped No. 37 Squadron. The C-130As were replaced by twelve C-130Hs in 1978, and the C-130Es by twelve C-130J Super Hercules in 1999. No. 37 Squadron became the RAAF's sole Hercules operator in 2006, when No. 36 Squadron transferred its C-130Hs prior to converting to Boeing C-17 Globemaster III heavy transports. The C-130Hs were retired in November 2012, leaving the C-130J as the only model in Australian service.
  The RAAF's first strategic airlifter, the Hercules has frequently been used to deliver disaster relief in Australia and the Pacific region, as well as to support military deployments overseas. The aircraft saw extensive service during the Vietnam War, transporting troops and cargo to Southeast Asia and undertaking aeromedical evacuation.
context_section_description: The RAAF's twelve C-130As were picked up by their newly trained Australian pilots from the Lockheed factory at Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia, and ferried to Australia in three groups between December 1958 and March 1959. No. 36 Squadron, located at RAAF Base Richmond, became the first unit to operate the new aircraft. Almost immediately they established regular courier services within Australia and to RAAF Base Butterworth in Malaya. These flights primarily involved transporting cargo, as Chief of the Air Staff Frederick Scherger directed in 1959 that the RAAF would continue to rely on chartered civil airliners to move military personnel on the grounds that these aircraft were better suited to the task and in wartime all the C-130s would be needed to supply troops near the front lines. In February 1960 a Hercules flew the RAAF's first AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles from the United States to Butterworth to equip the CAC Sabre fighters based there. Crew training was rigorous, and from mid-1960 involved the use of a simulator. Only seasoned transport pilots flew the Hercules in its early years of service, generally having undertaken a tour of duty with No. 38 Squadron's Dakotas. The official history of the post-war Air Force described the Hercules as "probably the biggest step-up in aircraft capabilities" the RAAF had ever received, considering it roughly four times as effective as the Dakota, taking into account the improvements in payload, range, and speed. When No. 78 (Fighter) Wing and its two squadrons of CAC Sabres deployed to Butterworth between October 1958 and February 1959, seven Dakotas were required to ferry the staff and equipment of No. 3 Squadron from Australia to Malaya, compared to two Hercules for No. 77 Squadron. The Hercules were the first turboprop aircraft operated by the RAAF. They were serviced by No. 486 Maintenance Squadron, with deeper maintenance and upgrades carried out by No. 2 Aircraft Depot (No. 2 AD), both units being based at Richmond. The availability of spare parts from the US caused problems early on, grounding one C-130A for almost a year.
  No. 36 Squadron commenced parachute trials with the Hercules in September 1960. Beginning in May 1962, RAAF forces based at Ubon, Thailand, under SEATO arrangements were supplied by a regular Hercules service. In December that year, the Hercules made their first troop-carrying flights into a combat zone, when one of No. 36 Squadron's C-130s joined a Commonwealth airlift from Singapore to Borneo at the commencement of the Konfrontasi between Indonesia and Malaysia; similar missions would be undertaken for a further five years. In 1964, the first two Dassault Mirage III fighters to be assembled in Australia were flown in pieces from France to the Government Aircraft Factories at Avalon, Victoria, by RAAF Hercules. The same year, following the entry into Australian service of the de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou with No. 38 Squadron, No. 486 Squadron was disbanded and its equipment and staff divided between Nos. 36 and 38 Squadrons. The RAAF's force of twelve C-130A Hercules was augmented by twelve C-130Es commencing in August 1966. No. 37 Squadron, disbanded in 1948, was re-formed at Richmond to operate the new models. No. 486 Squadron was also re-formed to provide maintenance for both Hercules squadrons. No. 36 Squadron's tasking was mainly domestic and tactical in nature, while No. 37 Squadron's was overseas and strategic, owing to the longer range of its C-130Es. In May 1967, three Hercules of No. 37 Squadron supported Operation Fast Caravan, the deployment of 23 Mirages of No. 75 Squadron to Butterworth.
caption: C-130E Hercules of No. 37 Squadron at Clark Air Base, Philippines, November 1981
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