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The Air Mobility Command (AMC) of the Air Force has announced that the majority of their C-130H Hercules have been grounded for maintenance issues:<\/p>\n
The Air Force has grounded most of its older C-130H Hercules cargo planes<\/a> and variants due to a problem with their propeller barrels.<\/p>\n
AMC said 116 C-130Hs, including variants of the mobility aircraft, were grounded on Tuesday due to concerns their propeller assemblies are defective, and that inspections over the coming days will show how many of those are affected.<\/p>\n
AMC said the groundings are \u201cwidespread\u201d and primarily affect the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard.<\/p>\n
The unofficial Facebook page Air Force amn\/nco\/snco posted a screenshot of a time compliance technical order<\/a> on the groundings Wednesday. On Friday, the page posted a screenshot of a slide<\/a> that said the propeller barrels in question had been installed in 100 C-130Hs, as well as the entire inventories of eight MC-130H Combat Talons, seven EC-130H Compass Calls, and one TC-130H.<\/p>\n
The command said newer C-130Js and C-130Hs that have already had their propeller assemblies upgraded with the eight-bladed NP2000 system are not affected by the order.<\/p>\n
This is the second time in more than three years that significant numbers of C-130Hs were grounded due to propeller problems. In February 2019, the Air Force grounded 60 C-130Hs<\/a> \u2014 at the time, nearly one-third of the fleet \u2014 for several weeks due to concerns their pre-1971 propeller blades could crack. Those C-130s had their propeller blades replaced over subsequent weeks.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n