US MARINE AIRCRAFT AT SHANNON.

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday April 22, 2002 01:19 by Tim Hourigan tim_hourigan at hotmail dot com

Again, Shannon is a pit-stop for the military.

Last Friday night/Saturday morning I went out to Shannon to see what was going on. I spotted a BIG, GREY MILITARY AIRCRAFT with the words US MARINES painted on the side. It's 97 ft long, 132 feet wide, and 38ft high and mean looking. I knew it was some sort of Hercules aircraft, and obviously not part of usual Shannon traffic. I took some pictures, and some notes and here's what I found out.

The aircraft is a KC-130 belonging to the 'Raider'.
VMGR-352 squadron is Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron at MCAS Miramar, California.

The individual aircraft reg is QB 9792 but I'm not sure if it is the same C-130 spotted in October, as I didn't get the reg of that aircraft.

This aircraft was parked next to the Westair hangar near the entrance to the airport access road. Apparently it is being serviced by a company called FBO, based in the main terminal.
They may be the same company that serviced the C-20g Naval jet late last year.

The C-130 hercules is a workhorse for the military and a very versatile transporter. it can carry troops, refeulling tanks, and even the 15,000lb BLU-182 "Daisy-cutter" bomb - the world's biggest NON-NUCLEAR Weapon, basically a petrol bomb the size of a camper van, which is not dropped out of the bottom, but ejected out the rear cargo door using a big parachute.

It's rather worrying that these aircraft are using Shannon. The C-130s are a lot more obvious than the DC-10s and MD-11s of World Airways, but people still seem not to notice anything these days.

Here's some technical blurb from a military site
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Mission: The KC-130 is a multi-role, multi-mission tactical tanker/transport which provides the support required by Marine Air Ground Task Forces. This versatile asset provides in-flight refueling to both tactical aircraft and helicopters as well as rapid ground refueling when required. Additional tasks performed are aerial delivery of troops and cargo, emergency resupply into unimproved landing zones within the objective or battle area, airborne Direct Air Support Center, emergency medevac, tactical insertion of combat troops and equipment, evacuation missions, and support as required of special operations capable Marine Air Ground Task Forces.

Features: The KC-130 is equipped with a removable 3600 gallon (136.26 hectoliter) stainless steel fuel tank that is carried inside the cargo compartment providing additional fuel when required. The two wing-mounted hose and drogue refueling pods each transfer up to 300 gallons per minute (1135.5 liters per minute) to two aircraft simultaneously allowing for rapid cycle times of multiple-receiver aircraft formations (a typical tanker formation of four aircraft in less than 30 minutes). Some KC-130s are also equipped with defensive electronic and infrared countermeasures systems. Development is currently under way for the incorporation of interior/exterior night vision lighting, night vision goggle heads-up displays, global positioning system, and jam-resistant radios.

sourced from:
http://www.hqmc.usmc.mil/factfile.nsf/7e931335d515626a8525628100676e0c/0992276ba1b2f2b68525626e00494022?OpenDocument