MC-130E Combat Talon

MC-130
MC-130H Combat Talon II
Role	STOL Special operations military transport aircraft
Manufacturer	Lockheed Corporation
First flight	MC-130J: April 2011
Introduction	MC-130E: 1966 MC-130P: 1986 MC-130H: 1991 MC-130W: 2006 MC-130J: 2012
Status	active
Primary user	United States Air Force
Number built	MC-130E: 18 MC-130H: 24 MC-130P: 28 MC-130W: 12 MC-130J: 37
Unit cost	MC-130E $75 million MC-130H $155 million MC-130W $60 million MC-130J $67.3 million
Developed from	C-130 Hercules C-130J Super Hercules

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 (AFSOC), a wing of the Air Education and Training Command, and an AFSOC-gained wing of the Air Force Reserve Command. Based on the Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport, the MC-130s' missions are the infiltration, exfiltration, and resupply of special operations forces, and the air refueling of (primarily) special operations helicopter and tilt-rotor aircraft.

Members of the family include the MC-130E Combat Talon I, MC-130H Combat Talon II, MC-130W Combat/Dragon Spear, MC-130P Combat Shadow, and MC-130J Commando II. A possible MC-130 variant, designated the XFC-130H, did not proceed beyond the development stage, but one of its aircraft became the YMC-130H testbed aircraft for the Combat Talon II.

The first of the variants, the MC-130E, was developed to support clandestine special operations missions during the Vietnam War. Eighteen were created by modifying C-130E transports, and four lost through attrition, but the remainder served more than four decades after their initial modification. An update, the MC-130H Combat Talon II, was developed in the 1980s from the C-130H and went into service in the 1990s. Four of its 24 original aircraft have been lost in operations.

The Combat Shadows were built during the Vietnam War for search and rescue operations and repurposed in the 1980s as AFSOC air-refueling tankers; the last of the 24 retired in 2015.

The Combat Spear was developed in 2006 as an inexpensive version of the Combat Talon II but was reconfigured and designated the AC-130W Stinger II in 2012.