Hercules fleet needs to be replaced and expanded, say critics

RNZAF Hercules. File picture / Christchurch Star

Retired chief of defence Air Marshal Carey Adamson has great affection for the Hercules, dubbed Herc, hero of the skies.

He was one of the original crews to fly the first RNZAF Hercules, the C130H, into Wellington, 40 years ago in April this year.

But he says New Zealand's fleet should start to be replaced now, instead of being upgraded, and that more are needed.

"Even with the upgrades, sooner or later they will have to be replaced and it will cost hugely to do this. It's better to replace a couple now, at least. And we need more than five," he told NZPA in an interview.

He praised the Hercules' workhorse capability, saying they performed a wider range of functions now than ever, particularly for humanitarian relief efforts.

New Zealand's five Hercs were delivered between 1965 and 1968.

At least 60 countries fly the same aircraft.

Australia has 24 Hercules, its 12 C130H models in service since 1966 replaced by new C130Js in 1999. The other 12 C130Hs, in service since 1978, have been upgraded.

Britain's Royal Air Force has 49 of the aircraft, including five in reserve. It replaced 25 older types in 2000.

Air Marshal Adamson said New Zealand had the chance to buy C130Js in conjunction with an Australian deal with Lockheed in the late 1990s, but when Australia withdrew, New Zealand's opportunity disappeared.

The RNZAF was a victim of the fact it operated a very small fleet.

"One was always out of service for maintenance, in pieces on a hangar floor. In recent years aircraft could be overseas for more extended periods and one was always needed to stay in New Zealand in case of an emergency," Air Marshall Adamson said.

"Given the multiple tasks the Herc can perform, the fleet's resources were often stretched to the limit."

Apart from carrying troops and other personnel, the transport is used for search and rescue, as an aerial tanker, for humanitarian relief, as an airborne hospital, Antarctic support, weather reconnaissance and, to a limited extent, in a gunship capacity.

"We don't have a lot of flexibility," Air Marshal Adamson said.

"Air forces like to have aircraft in reserve. We don't have that luxury. The fleet is too small. We need more planes -- that's the way you run an air force."

One of the country's loudest critics of the ageing fleet is NZ First defence spokesman Ron Mark. He's become more irate since the combat wing of the air force was scrapped at the end of 2001.

Before he went into politics, Mr Mark was a military mechanical engineer.

He believes the Hercules fleet should be replaced, not upgraded as the Government plans with $226 million earmarked for modification.

It will be 2010 before the upgrades are complete and the aircraft will then last another 15 years.

It's the cheaper option for the Government -- estimated replacement cost of the five C130s is more than $800m.

Mr Mark says reducing defence spending is wrong -- it's downplaying possibly the best foreign aid tool New Zealand has to offer in terms of defence and disaster relief.

"It's foolhardy to focus on the so-called benign defence environment in the South Pacific and use that as an excuse for under-investment in defence obligations."

Mr Mark said New Zealand's ability to respond to an international emergency such as terrorism or natural disasters, at home or abroad, often hinged on how rapidly it could deploy defence resources.

"Quite clearly, with successive governments running down their commitments and expenditure on defence, our ability to respond is in question. It's clearly hampered by the unreliability of our aircraft."

In the past few days two Hercs were grounded during tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia -- one with a cracked engine manifold and one with a gas turbine compressor fault.

The Hercules have suffered a litany of well-publicised woes.

In the two years ended March 1999, 86 Hercules missions were delayed because of malfunctions.

In July 2002 the air force admitted its No 40 Squadron was at crisis point when the five Hercules and the two Boeing 727s were broken down or undergoing service at the same time.

Deployments to the Solomon Islands and Niue were also delayed last year due to breakdowns.

Mr Mark says Labour inherited the under-investment of past administrations, but failed to understand that by mothballing its combat aircraft, it would lose expertise vital to maintaining what was left of its airpower.

"What makes our air force fleets unreliable is our inability to provide enough manpower to maintain them to the military standards required. As the age of the equipment goes up, the servicing schedules and the workload generated from those service schedules becomes more complex.

"We are suffering a shortage of experienced expertise. They are the very people we need to maintain an ageing fleet."

The Hercules has been an unqualified success story for manufacturers Lockheed and is still in production more than 40 years after it was rolled out.

The hero of the skies was developed in the mid 1950s during the Korean War when the United States Air Force needed a military transport capable of flying combat troops over medium distances and landing them on short runways.

The Hercules is anything but glamorous, with a fat fuselage sitting low to the ground and four propellers on straight wings.

The turbine-driven props enabled the Herc to take off on short runways, even rough dirt strips.

RNZAF spokesman Ric Cullinane defended the Hercules' reputation, saying New Zealand's five broke down less often than those from other nations.

During missions in the first Gulf War and in Rwanda, American commanders praised the New Zealanders' Hercules for moving more freight and people per aircraft than any other nation, he said.

"The headlines do not reflect the Herc's true reputation. When a Herc breaks down in an isolated area on a relief mission, for example, there are no spare parts readily available and they have to be flown in. That could happen to any nation's aircraft."

The many missions to the Antarctic last year went without a hitch.

Five years ago a New Zealand Herc won an aircraft maintenance competition in Britain -- and it was the oldest in a competitive field of 27 from 15 countries.

Said Air Marshal Adamson: "Unfortunately ageing aircraft break down more. And when you have to replace one of ours that's broken down, you have to fly in another one.

"When you've got only five, it's clearly not enough."

- NZPA