Hercules to fill Philippines maritime patrol gap
The Philippine Air Force’s (PAF) plan to buy two long-range patrol aircraft may have stalled, but the capability gap will be partially filled by a C-130T Hercules fitted with Airdyne’s palletised Special Airborne Mission Installation and Response (SABIR) system.
An image (pictured) from the Philippine Plane Spotters Group appeared on its Facebook page of a specially modified PAF C-130T (tail number ‘5040’) at Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
The aircraft has AS-6BKS scanner doors (fitted with a glass dome in place of the regular paratrooper doors) and AS-7 retractable struts of the SABIR system which have been fitted on both
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