The contract has a maximum value of $10 billion and may include export orders placed under the Foreign Military Sales mechanism. The department said the initial export customers are Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, France, the Philippines, Norway and the Federal Republic of Germany.
The framework agreement covers not only the production of new aircraft but also development and engineering activities, as well as the integration of new onboard systems. No funding was activated at the time the agreement was signed.
The department also noted that a first multi-year framework agreement has been in force since July 2020, with a value of up to $15 billion. That earlier contract enables the ordering of aircraft and related services through July 2030.
To date, Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 560 production aircraft from the C-130J Super Hercules family, which have accumulated more than three million flight hours. The aircraft have been ordered by 25 countries worldwide, as well as by a single civilian operator carrying out missions for U.S. government agencies.
Alongside the standard transport variant, Lockheed Martin offers multiple specialised configurations of the C-130J. These versions enable the aircraft to perform intelligence, electronic warfare, special forces support, search and rescue and command roles.
