U.S. Ambassador McCourt and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly underscored a close tie between the U.S. and France as she welcomed the first C-130J Super Hercules air lifter to join the French Air Force transport fleet. The C-130J, designed, developed and built by Lockheed Martin, landed here Dec. 22, part of a four-strong fleet to fill a capability gap for airlift and refueling of helicopters in the Barkhane mission in the sub-Saharan Sahel region.
On the runway, the new aircraft was flanked on both sides by C-130Hs, with the tailplane of one painted with the slogan “30 years,” marking the long service of a weary French fleet of Hercules cargo planes.
“Madame ambassador, your presence here reminds us that the C-130J first saw the light of day in a hanger in America,” said mInister Parly at Orleans airbase, south of the capital.