Lockheed Martin Offers India C-130J-30 Deal, Possible 72-Aircraft Super Hercules Fleet

Lockheed Martin has put forward an ambitious proposal for India’s Medium Transport Aircraft programme, offering to build 48 C-130J-30 Super Hercules aircraft in India while also upgrading the Indian Air Force’s existing 12-aircraft fleet. If both parts of the proposal are taken up, the company says India could end up with a common fleet of 72 advanced airlifters.

The offer comes at a time when the Ministry of Defence has already moved the MTA competition into the bidding stage. The ministry issued the Request for Proposal on 12 August 2026 for 60 aircraft, with bids due by 2 December. The programme is valued at about ₹1 lakh crore, or roughly USD 10–12 billion, with recent reporting placing the figure at around USD 10.5 billion.

According to Lockheed Martin, its proposal is built around a mixed delivery model. Twelve aircraft would come in flyaway condition from the company’s facility in Marietta, Georgia, while the remaining 48 would be manufactured in India with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL). The company is offering the latest C-130J-30 Block 8.1.2 standard, which includes updated communications, navigation, avionics and software. India’s current C-130J fleet is an earlier configuration described by Lockheed as Block 6.

Robert Toth, Vice President for Strategy and Business Development, Air Mobility and Maritime Missions, told The Times of India that Lockheed was prepared to supply “60 advanced Super Hercules (12 in flyaway conditions and 48 made in India)” and to upgrade the existing 12 “to the level of the advanced 60 aircraft, thereby taking IAF’s effective fleet of advanced aircraft to 72.” He added that the full fleet would then share the same lifespan. Toth also said Lockheed was “ready for complete transfer of technologies of some parts” of the C-130J if it wins the contract, and argued that selection would give India access to advanced technologies held by the group.

That upgrade, however, is not part of the current tender itself. Toth later told The Print that modernising the existing 12 aircraft would require a separate contract and is not included in the present MTA proposal. Any move to create a common 72-aircraft fleet would therefore depend not only on Lockheed winning the 60-aircraft competition, but also on a later decision to proceed with the upgrade package.

The Indian Air Force inducted its C-130J-30s from 2011 and now operates 12 stretched Super Hercules aircraft. The fleet is used for special operations, tactical airlift and humanitarian missions. Lockheed says the aircraft have accumulated more than 58,000 flight hours and have maintained an availability rate above 85 per cent. The company points to operations in high-altitude Ladakh, including landings at Daulat Beg Oldi, as well as relief flights during the Nepal floods and the 2023 evacuation of Indian nationals from Sudan.

The company is also leaning on an existing industrial footprint in India. Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Limited has been building C-130J empennages in Hyderabad since December 2013 and, according to Lockheed, has delivered 265 units. Lockheed says its joint ventures are supported by more than 500 Indian suppliers, including about 140 micro, small and medium enterprises, and that the partnership has generated over USD 700 million in exports.

That industrial base could deepen further if the bid succeeds. Lockheed says a dedicated C-130J maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Bengaluru is scheduled for completion by the end of 2026, with the first Indian aircraft expected to enter the facility in the first or second quarter of 2027. The company is also evaluating a second final-assembly line in India, which would be the first Super Hercules production line outside the United States. Dan Tenney, Senior Vice President for Global Business Development and Strategy, told PTI on 4 October that the existing Tata partnership for C-130J components and empennages “will be expanded in our current bid.”

The Request for Proposal has gone to five Indian entities: TASL, which is partnered with Lockheed Martin on the C-130J; Mahindra Defence, which is partnered with Embraer on the C-390 Millennium; Reliance Defence; Adani Defence; and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Airbus has since withdrawn from the competition, leaving the C-130J-30 and the C-390 as the principal contenders.

The MTA programme is intended to replace the Indian Air Force’s ageing An-32 and Il-76 fleets. The formal requirement is for 60 aircraft, but the source indicates that the need is expected to rise later. In that context, Lockheed’s pitch combines an aircraft already cleared for Indian high-and-hot operations, an established private-sector supply chain, and a promise of deeper local production. The outcome will likely turn on payload performance within the stated 18-to-30-tonne band, the level of indigenous content, lifecycle cost, and how far technology transfer and Indian assembly are actually extended.