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the Helmand Rock Stars
Quote:
US Marines receive full complement of Harvest HAWK gunships
Gareth Jennings, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
18 June 2014
An airmen poses next to the operational 'kill' markings stencilled onto the fuselage of a Harvest HAWK in Afghanistan, giving an indication of the type's work rate in the close air support role. Source: US Marine Corps
The US Marine Corps (USMC) has received into service the 10th and final Lockheed Martin KC-130J Hercules to be modernised with the Harvest HAWK mission package, the company announced on 16 June.
The Harvest Hercules Airborne Weapons Kit (HAWK)-equipped aircraft was handed over to the USMC during a ceremony at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, on 5 June, marking the end of a four-year conversion contract.
Developed to fulfil an urgent operational requirement in Afghanistan, the Harvest HAWK conversion programme equipped the KC-130J with a roll-on/roll-off dual-screen fire-control console mounted in a removable cargo platform in the aircraft's cargo compartment, a Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control AN/AAQ-30 Target Sight Sensor mounted under the port-side wing fuel tank, and a Common Data Link.
The aircraft's weapons fit comprises four AGM-114P Hellfire II laser-guided air-to-surface missiles mounted on the port-side refuelling pylon, and MBDA GBU-44/E Viper Strike and Raytheon Griffin A air-to-surface missiles launched from a ramp-mounted 10-round rack and a pressurised dispenser dubbed the 'Derringer Door'. A sideways-firing Mk 44 30 mm cannon has been deferred to a later Block III upgrade.
The first Harvest HAWK kit was deployed to Afghanistan with VMGR-352 in October 2010. The type has since become the close air support (CAS) platform of choice for ground forces.
Major John Butler, Marine Aerial Refueling Transport Squadron 252 (VMGR-252) detachment commander in Afghanistan in 2011 to 2012, said: "The [CAS] tasking for Harvest HAWK will make your eyes water. Our launch total was considerably more than marine Harriers, navy Hornets, and even air force A-10s. With only one aircraft, we shot close to half of all the kinetic weapons launched in theatre in the nine months we were there."
Such has been the success of the Harvest HAWK in Afghanistan that one pilot was quoted as saying in the Lockheed Martin blog: "Units all over Helmand Province regularly began requesting us by name. The British began calling us the Helmand Rock Stars."
IHS Janes
Gareth Jennings, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
18 June 2014
Quote:
An airmen poses next to the operational 'kill' markings stencilled onto the fuselage of a Harvest HAWK in Afghanistan, giving an indication of the type's work rate in the close air support role. Source: US Marine Corps
The US Marine Corps (USMC) has received into service the 10th and final Lockheed Martin KC-130J Hercules to be modernised with the Harvest HAWK mission package, the company announced on 16 June.
The Harvest Hercules Airborne Weapons Kit (HAWK)-equipped aircraft was handed over to the USMC during a ceremony at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, on 5 June, marking the end of a four-year conversion contract.
Developed to fulfil an urgent operational requirement in Afghanistan, the Harvest HAWK conversion programme equipped the KC-130J with a roll-on/roll-off dual-screen fire-control console mounted in a removable cargo platform in the aircraft's cargo compartment, a Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control AN/AAQ-30 Target Sight Sensor mounted under the port-side wing fuel tank, and a Common Data Link.
The aircraft's weapons fit comprises four AGM-114P Hellfire II laser-guided air-to-surface missiles mounted on the port-side refuelling pylon, and MBDA GBU-44/E Viper Strike and Raytheon Griffin A air-to-surface missiles launched from a ramp-mounted 10-round rack and a pressurised dispenser dubbed the 'Derringer Door'. A sideways-firing Mk 44 30 mm cannon has been deferred to a later Block III upgrade.
The first Harvest HAWK kit was deployed to Afghanistan with VMGR-352 in October 2010. The type has since become the close air support (CAS) platform of choice for ground forces.
Major John Butler, Marine Aerial Refueling Transport Squadron 252 (VMGR-252) detachment commander in Afghanistan in 2011 to 2012, said: "The [CAS] tasking for Harvest HAWK will make your eyes water. Our launch total was considerably more than marine Harriers, navy Hornets, and even air force A-10s. With only one aircraft, we shot close to half of all the kinetic weapons launched in theatre in the nine months we were there."
Such has been the success of the Harvest HAWK in Afghanistan that one pilot was quoted as saying in the Lockheed Martin blog: "Units all over Helmand Province regularly began requesting us by name. The British began calling us the Helmand Rock Stars."
IHS Janes
Kit-nya bisa dipasang di Hercules serie H gak sih?
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