Defence has welcomed its fourth new C-130J-30 Hercules aircraft home to New Zealand.
The fifth and final aircraft in the new Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Hercules fleet is scheduled to arrive by the end of the year.
“From day one, the first three new Hercules have been put to work, moving freight and personnel around New Zealand and the South Pacific. By the end of the year, all five new aircraft in the fleet will have touched down in New Zealand, and a number will be carrying out missions to Antarctica, transporting people and equipment over summer for the Government’s Antarctica programme,” said Sarah Minson, Deputy Secretary, Capability Delivery, at the Ministry of Defence.
The Ministry’s integrated project team continues to work on the delivery of a C-130J-30 Hercules flight simulator, which will be located at RNZAF Base Auckland, Whenuapai.
The building to house the replica cockpit has completed construction.
“The building is nearly 16 metres high and has 26 piles that were drilled 21 metres deep to reach the bedrock, to provide a stable base for the full-motion flight simulator,” said Sarah Minson.
The tilt slabs used to construct the building weigh 730 tonnes in total, and are the largest able to be transported by road. They were brought on site from South Auckland overnight and it took two large cranes to lift them into place.
The simulator is scheduled to arrive in 2025 and, following this, assembly and testing will commence. In the interim, RNZAF crews will continue to train on partner nations’ simulators.
Both the Hercules and simulator have been procured through a United States Government Foreign Military Sales programme.
