56 | Flight International | 11-17 June 2019 flightglobal.com
PARIS
Special report
A
fter dominating the medium-lift
military tactical market for dec-
ades, Lockheed Martin’s turboprop
C-130J Hercules, upon which the
LM-100J is based, is facing new competition
from Embraer’s KC-390 turbofan transport. In
response, Lockheed is flexing its muscles and
showing off Hercules’ strengths.
“At the (2018) Farnborough air show, one
of the key highlights we wanted to do with
the demonstration was to show its manoeu-
vrability,” says Lockheed’s vice-
president of business development for air mo-
bility & maritime missions, Tony Frese. “That
manoeuvrability, that responsiveness, pays
off at the tactical role.”
Lockheed might have good reason to feel
uneasy about the C-130J’s position in the tacti-
cal airlift market. Just weeks before Farnbor-
ough, on 5 July 2018, Embraer announced
that it intended to market and sell its KC-390
through a joint venture with Boeing. Embraer
also plans to use the US company’s leverage
over suppliers to cut the cost of parts and
components.
MARKET LEADER
However, it is Lockheed’s market to lose.
Some 21% of military transports in operation
at the beginning of 2019 were C-130/L-100s,
according to FlightGlobal’s World Air Forces
directory. The next closest competitors, the
Airbus Defence & Space C295/CN235 and
Beechcraft King Air, each accounted for 7%.
Embraer’s KC-390 is not the first aircraft to
try to knock off the Hercules.
“The C-130 has always been there. People
have been afraid to challenge it. People have
tried to nibble away at it and been beaten
down,” says Richard Aboulafia, vice-
president of analysis at Teal Group. “The
[Leonardo] C-27J experience was probably as
close as we’ve seen an attempt... The C-27J
was put out there as effectively a half-sized C-
130J. The problem was it was two-thirds of
the price.”
In fact, the military transportation market
could shrink in the coming years. Teal Group
projects that the market will reduce by some
42% to $3.62 billion by 2027. Total units pro-
duced across the market are projected to fall
about 24%, to 56 annually.
Compared with the hundreds of fighters
and helicopters that roll off assembly lines
each year, the military transport market is not
big. Nonetheless, Embraer is determined to
get a piece of it. The South American firm
may have a chance.
“You are getting a lot of cargo box for the
money. It’s a lot of lift and a lot of box,” says
Aboulafia. “It’s probably the best single design
in its class.”
Medium-lift transports are tasked with
carrying out a wide variety of missions, in-
cluding troop transport, medical evacuation,
cargo air drop, fire retardant air drop, para-
trooper air drop, aerial refuelling, maritime
patrol, and search and rescue. The C-130 has
also been modified to fill several niche roles
as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnais-sance aircraft, a gunship and an electronic
warfare platform.
To serve that smorgasbord of tactical trans-
port uses, Embraer has deviated from the typi-
cal turboprop design that dominates the mar-
ket. Instead, the KC-390 has a high, swept
wing and two International Aero Engines
(IAE) V2500-E5 turbofans. With that design, itGARRETT REIM LOS ANGELES
KC-390 guns
for Hercules
Embraer is looking to knock Lockheed Martin’s C-130J off
its perch and get a piece of the military transport action