[Llarry]

The Marine Corps and Navy use of the Lockheed C-130 goes back to 1960. The Marine Corps wanted a transport/refueler and the Navy wanted a small number of C-130s for use in Antarctica.

The Marines ordered three squadrons' worth of KC-130Fs and the Navy ordered four C-130BLs, later redesignated as LC-130F. The Marines used the refueling capabilities of the KC-130F to facilitate trans-Pacific flights of tactical aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom. The Navy used LC-130s for years but has turned that mission over to the Air National Guard.

These early Marine/Navy planes were based on early Air Force C-130B airframes. In later years, upgraded versions were purchased and replaced the early models. During 1965 the Navy started buying C-130s for the TACAMO mission to communicate with submerged missile submarines, discussed earlier in this thread. These TACAMO C-130s were replaced by the Boeing 707-based E-6 Mercury, as also discussed earlier. Now, in an interesting twist, there is some discussion of retiring the aging E-6Bs and replacing them with new TACAMO EC-130Js.

The current Marine Corps transport/refueler fleet consists of three active-duty transport/refueler squadrons (VMGR) with 45 KC-130Js. The Marine Corps Reserve has an additional two squadrons. Of note, the Marine KC-130Js are the short version of the -130, where almost all Air Force and Air National Guard version are the longer version. A recent study has recommended that the number of active Marine squadrons be expanded to five, so the fleet may grow. A fourth squadron is to be established in Hawaii; I'm not sure where the fifth will be.

The Marines have also developed an armament package for their KC-130Js, although the number of packages is limited. The Harvest Hawk package includes an electro-optical/infrared imaging system and AGM-114P Hellfire (pictured) and AGM-176 Griffin missiles. Ten KC-130Js have been modified to accept the package and six packages are available for installation, so relatively few Marine KC-130Js will be armed.

There is one special Marine Corps C-130J used to support the Blue Angels and called Fat Albert. This is actually a former RAF short-body C-130 that was modified in the UK to support the Blue Angels. Old-timers like me may remember the spectacular rocket-assisted takeoffs by past Fat Albert -130s at Blue Angels airshows; those unfortunately are a thing of the distant past, as the JATO units were deemed unsafe.

The U.S. Navy Reserve currently has several squadrons of C-130Ts; these are equivalent to late-production USAF C-130Hs. The USNR squadrons are scheduled to re-equip with KC-130Js, though the expansion of the Marine squadrons may delay the program. I believe that the USNR C-130Ts are currently limited by prop problems, as are Air National Guard C-130Hs. The solution is replacement of the props -- replacing the 4-blade props with 8-blade props -- but the program is not going quickly; it may be that the KC-130J ends up being the solution for the Navy Reserve.