ANG/AF to retire the EC-130 Commando Solo II

Here is the whole article:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... new-budget

The EC-130 part:

The Air Force wants to retire all of its EC-130J Commando Solo psychological warfare aircraft, which are presently assigned to a Pennsylvania Air National Guard unit affiliated with Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).

That unit would retain a number of more flexible EC-130J Super J aircraft that can perform the psychological warfare role, but that have also demonstrated an ability to perform other missions.

I wonder if AFSOC keeps the unit, or does it become an ACC gained unit?

If memory serves me these 3 SC-130J (Short hulls) all predate the improved wing box. I suspect that they may be coming up on a wing box replacement. The USAF does not want to spend the money on this. The 4 remaining EC-130SJ will have to hold the workload.

Guess they can't decide what to do with them. At one time they were discussing de-modding the acft and converting to roll on/roll off mission equipment. Yes, they were early versions of the C-130J so yes, they did not have the ESL CWBs later production acft had but being special they also have low hours and are not likely in need of new CWBs for sometime, especially considering the mission profiles flown. Find it very hard to believe the USAF would park three J models in AMARG though.

If memory serves me these 3 SC-130J (Short hulls) all predate the improved wing box. I suspect that they may be coming up on a wing box replacement. The USAF does not want to spend the money on this. The 4 remaining EC-130SJ will have to hold the workload.

I recall chatting with a C-130 maintainer long ago, and the discussion turned to C-130 center wing boxes. He pointed out that the C-130, C-141, and C-5 all had to have some form of wing box redesigns or replacements over their lives.

What is it about Lockheed that they can't design a proper wingbox?