The US Air Force’s first HC-130J personnel recovery aircraft was flown for the first time on 29 July 2010 from the Lockheed Martin facility adjoining Dobbins ARB in Marietta, Georgia. Lockheed Martin is on contract to build twenty-one HC- and MC-130J aircraft to start replacing the Air Force’s aging special mission MC-130s and the fixed-wing rescue HC-130s that were both first flown in the 1960s. The Air Force requirement is for thirty-seven HC-130Js for Air Combat Command and thirty-seven MC-130Js for Special Operations Command. The HC-130J, which is likely to be given the nickname Combat King II, is scheduled to reach initial operational capability in 2012.
