An April 12, 2021, intergovernmental agreement reveals, the Armament Inspectorate of the Polish Ministry of Defense is planning to take delivery of five C-130H Hercules Airlifters from the U.S Airforce Boneyard.
An aircraft boneyard or aircraft graveyard is a storage area for aircraft that are retired from service. Most aircraft at boneyards are either kept for storage with some maintenance or have their parts removed for reuse or resale and are then scrapped.
- Poland is buying five C-130H Hercules aircraft out of the "Boneyard" in the Arizona desert.
- The aircraft will be partially retrofitted with new equipment, made flightworthy, and flown to Poland.
The deal is a part of the Excess Defense Articles grant program. The aircraft would be partially retrofitted with new equipment, made flightworthy, and then they would fly to Poland.
Polish MoD says, the C-130H Hercules aircrafts being procured, came from the production line in 1985 and then were phased out in 2017. After that, they were stored at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group facility (AMARG) in Tucson, Arizona.
Due to the state of 'phase out' , the agreement has a relatively low value , around USD $14.3 million, though they are worth $60 million, as per the US quote.
The deliveries will start this year with a target to complete them by 2024. These aircrafts from the storage would be 15 years younger than the C-130s currently operated by the Polish Air Force.
The technical status of the aircraft was assessed during a Joint Visual Inspection procedure at AMARG in Tucson. It has been pointed out by the experts that both the engines, as well as the propellers, along with the avionics, may need to be upgraded.
After the aircrafts are transferred, the aircraft would undergo the periodic, scheduled maintenance (Programmed Depot Maintenance – PDM) at the WZL Nr 2 S.A. facility in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Bydgoszcz is also going to be the place where extra equipment, as required by the Polish Air Force, would be fitted onto the aircraft, before it becomes a part of the inventory of the 33rd Airlift Base in Powidz.
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