Lockheed MC-130

The Lockheed MC-130 is the basic designation for a family of special-mission aircraft operated by the United States Air Force Special Operations Command and based on the Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport. Their missions are the infiltration, exfiltration and resupply of special operations forces and the air refuelling of special operations helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft. The first variant, the MC-130E, was developed for clandestine operations during the Vietnam War by modifying eighteen C-130E transports, and the MC-130H Combat Talon II followed from the C-130H in the 1980s. The Combat Shadow tankers retired in 2015, the Combat Spear became the AC-130W Stinger II in 2012, and the new-production MC-130J, operational since 2011, replaces the others, with 57 delivered by 2023.