C-130H Hercules NZ7001 on Exercise Nocturnal Reach, RNZAF Base Woodbourne, 2016. Photo: Supplied / Royal New Zealand Air Force
The mighty workhorses of the Royal New Zealand Air Force are set to retire after 60 years in service.
From Antarctic rescues to combat zones to crocodile relocations, the fleet had clocked up 155,000 hours of flight time and 100,000 landings since they came into service in 1965.
The fleet of five C-130H Hercules will cease use on Friday.
C-130H Hercules NZ7005 on the ice in Antarctica. Photo: Supplied / Royal New Zealand Air Force
In a statement, the Defence Force said it had marked the occasion with flypasts over Northland and the central North Island, and more were planned over the South Island on Monday and Tuesday.
Four of the aircraft would then retire to RNZAF base in Woodbourne, and the fifth would go to the Air Force Museum at Wigram.
Hercules NZ7003 being photographed from N72002 conducting Flare trials, flight serial 4-1 in the M203/M204 area with the PW 118 Flare. Testing being conductor prior to Excercise Surfrider. Photo: Crown Copyright 2010, NZ Defence Force – Some Rights Reserved.
New Zealand Army personnel disembarking from a No. 40 Squadron Hercules at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Photo: Supplied / Royal New Zealand Air Force
Chief of Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Darryn Webb, said it was the unique tasks that got talked about the most.
There had been midwinter Antarctic rescues in -35°C temperatures, disaster response missions across the Indo-Pacific, short-notice evacuation tasks like Kabul in 2021, and operations in many combat zones.
C-130H(NZ) Hercules aircraft from No.40 Squadron flying over the Auckland area with three MC-130J United States Air Force aircraft. Photo: Supplied / Royal New Zealand Air Force
C-130H Hercules supply drop, 2016. Photo: Supplied / Royal New Zealand Air Force
These planes carried out the recovery of victims from Mt Erebus aircraft disaster in Antarctica, and loaded 120 people out of Banda Aceh after the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami where one survivor brought his pet monkey.
"There was air dropping a bulldozer to the remote Pitcairn Islands in the Pacific, moving crocodiles and an elephant to wildlife reserves, and my own personal experience of a live and very unhappy pig as a gift from Bougainville Islanders," Webb said.
Operation Frescoe, Gulf War 1. Sergeant Phil Lane, wearing a gas mask and carrying a Steyer rifle, on security duty on the tarmac in front of No. 40 Squadron Hercules NZ7003. Believed to be at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Supplied / Royal New Zealand Air Force
In 2020, the government announced the ageing fleet would be replaced by five new C-130J-30 Hercules. The last of the new aircraft arrived in December.
Over the years, the aircraft received a number of upgrades, with the most recent being a Life Extension Programme in 2005 involving an extensive avionics upgrade of the flight deck and structural refurbishment, upon which the aircraft were re-designated the C-130H(NZ).
Operation Samaritan, Somalia. No. 42 Squadron tents in front of No. 40 Squadron Hercules NZ7001, just before dismantling the camp for return to New Zealand. Photo: Supplied / Royal New Zealand Air Force
C-130H Hercules NZ7005 evacuating civilians in the Middle East Photo: Supplied / Royal New Zealand Air Force
RNZAF C-130H Hercules history:
- 1965 - The first three Hercules are delivered to No. 40 Squadron at RNZAF Base Auckland, and are quickly put to work transporting personnel from NZ Army 161 Battery and aid to Vietnam, and makes its first flight to Antarctica.
- 1969 - By now, the aircraft has proven so valuable in providing strategic and tactical airlift capabilities that a further two were purchased, bringing the fleet to five.
- 1079s - The Hercules becomes the first RNZAF aircraft to visit mainland China and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and provided service in Pakistan, Cambodia and Bangladesh.
- 1990s - Two aircraft and supporting crews are deployed to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War and with United Nations and other peacekeeping support in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, Uganda, the Persian Gulf and Rwanda.
- The aircraft has by now also helped sustain more than 1000 New Zealand troops stationed in East Timor around the turn of the century.
- 2001 - The aircraft deploys troops from the 1st New Zealand Special Air Service Regiment to Afghanistan, the beginning of a 20-year deployment to the country.
- More recently, and closer to home, the fleet has supported disaster response missions on an enduring basis - the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, Cyclones Pam and Winston in the Pacific, the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and 2016 Kaikōura earthquake and more recently Cyclone Gabrielle.
- The fleet has also transported personnel to Europe to support Ukraine against Russia, and assisted in the evacuation of refugees from Afghanistan.
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