Portugal joins Embraer and Brazil on C-390 ISR capabilities study
The ongoing study was first announced by Embraer in late 2024 with the Brazilian Air Force, with this latest addition announced during the LAAD defence and security exhibition.
Royal Jordanian Air Force C-130 Hercules being towed out at Muniz Air National Guard Base in Puerto Rico. (Photo: USAF/Master Sgt Thomas Ramirez)
The US embassy in Jordan announced on 9 December that two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft have been accepted by the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) under the global Ramp-to-Ramp (R2R) programme, with a third to follow in January 2022.
All three aircraft have received recent equipment updates and upgraded interoperable avionics before their integration into the RJAF fleet.
After they are delivered, the USAF Mobile Training Team will provide basic and advanced training of Jordanian aircrew and maintenance crews.
‘The transfer of these mission-ready aircraft comes as part of a US Congressional mandate to cap the size of the USAF C-130 fleet,’ the US embassy noted, adding that the C-130 R2R programme is the first USAF programme to transfer fully active and functional assets to ‘key security partners around the world’.
Eight C-130s have been transferred to date under R2R since the first aircraft in April 2021.
Jordan currently operates three C-130Es and four C-130Hs, so the arrival of the ex-USAF C-130 aircraft boosts the RJAF fixed-wing tactical airlift fleet by nearly 50%. It will also save RJAF approximately $30 million in equipment renovation costs, the US embassy calculated.
The ongoing study was first announced by Embraer in late 2024 with the Brazilian Air Force, with this latest addition announced during the LAAD defence and security exhibition.
The potential sale, approved by the US to the Philippines, is for 20 F-16 Block 70/72 jets, days after US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth visited the country.
The acquisition of four C-390 aircraft follows the country’s signing of an MoU in 2023 and formal selection in 2024. It will join the existing contract held by the Netherlands and Austria.
The counter-UAS prototype, named Low-cost Air Defence or ‘LOAD’, will be used to combat kamikaze UAS.
The aircraft is the first of 66 to be delivered to Taiwan from Lockheed Martin.
The contract award, worth $240 million, is part of the ongoing effort by the US Army to modernise its Block II Chinook rotorcraft fleet.