AFA 2021: AFSOC plans fast-paced prototyping for amphibious MC-130J aircraft

A rendering of an amphibious modification to an MC-130J Commando II is shown here in the Digital Proving Grounds. AFSOC’s chief believes the command’s goal of performing a flying demonstration of a single amphibious Lockheed Martin MC-130J Commando II aircraft in late 2022 is aggressive, but feasible. (US Air Force)

US Air Force Special Operations Command’s (AFSOC’s) goal of performing a flying demonstration of a single amphibious Lockheed Martin MC-130J Commando II aircraft in late 2022 is aggressive, but feasible, according to a top officer.

Lieutenant General James Slife, AFSOC commander, on 20 September at the Air Force Association’s (AFA’s) annual convention cited advances in digital engineering for his confidence in the platform’s five-phase rapid prototyping schedule. AFSOC is developing a MC-130J Commando II Amphibious Capability to improve the platform’s support of seaborne special operations.

Lt Gen Slife said that AFSOC seeks a true amphibious capability that can operate on both land and sea, and not simply a float plane or a sea plane. AFSOC wants to perform missions such as aquatic infiltration and exfiltration, logistics resupply, personnel recovery, and perhaps small maritime vessel surface and subsurface insertions and extractions with an amphibious aircraft, he added.

Although an amphibious aircraft capability is not a new idea, Lt Gen Slife said that the time is right to seriously consider such a platform. This is because AFSOC seeks to gain and leverage access, placement, and influence in the Pacific, a region dominated by large bodies of water.