On February 28, the combined Franco-German C-130 air-transport squadron at Évreux-Fauville Air Base in northern France received the first Lockheed Martin KC-130J tanker-transport aircraft for the Luftwaffe.
Departing from the company’s Marietta production facility in Georgia, the first of three German KC-130Js made the ferry flight to France, where it joined three already-delivered Luftwaffe C-130J-30, two French Air and Space Force (Armee de l’Air et de l’Espace: AAE) KC-130Js, and two AAE C-130J-30 aircraft. By the end of 2024, the Luftwaffe will have received two more KC-130Js, bringing its total fleet of five C-130J-30 and five KC-130J aircraft to five.
At Évreux-Fauville Air Base in northern France, the C-130 air-transport squadron will benefit from unlimited aircraft, aircrew, and maintainer exchanges in addition to technical and logistical assistance based on a shared pool of spare parts and a shared service support contract. The Bundeswehr has previously declared, “There has never been anything like this in Europe. Ten aircraft, two nations, one association.”
