Norway offers to sell four Hercules aircraft to Indonesia

Norway has offered to sell four H-type C-130 Hercules transport planes to Indonesia, according to Rear Marshal Imam Wahyudi, logistics assistant to the air force chief of staff, here on Friday.He said the planes had been used by Norway for some time and therefore the Nordic country would conduct a retrofit on the aircraft before delivering them to Indonesia.The four planes were offered to Indonesia for US$66 million. "Considering the price and our need to beef up our fleet, it is not a bad proposition, if the government is interested," he said.

Earlier, the US and Australia had offered to sell six E-type and J-type Hercules C-130s at special discounts to Indonesia with deliveries in 2012.The six planes which would be a grant from the US are initially allocated for three countries in Asia and Africa. Before being given to Indonesia they had already undergone retrofits, he said.The US had pledged to help procure six H-type and J-type Hercules C-130s for Indonesia. The help would be put in the form of a discount based on a Foreign Military Financing scheme and Hercules spareparts.

Australia meanwhile has offered J-typed Hercules but its realizaton will still be a long way away although the process has been started as of now.Indonesia at present has a squadron of C-130 Herculeses of various types such as C-130 Hercules VIP, C-130 H/HS, C-130 B/H and C-130 BT with an average rate of readiness of 60 percent or nine planes.Although they are decades old, the Indonesian air force was still using them and maintaining them through various services. It conducted a retrofit on four of them at a cost of US$51 million so that they can still be used for some more time."The four Herculeses underwent a retrofit in Singapore. The retrofits on two of them has been finished while the rest are still undergoing retrofits in Singapore and at the Indonesian Air Force`s maintainance depot," he said.

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