Royal Moroccan Air Force C-130H modernisation

Only a handful of C-130Hs are currently operational with the Royal Moroccan Air Force (RMAF), as it embarks on a modernisation programme in the USA as well as an additional effort to increase their period depot maintenance in Morocco

On July 14 last year, L3Harris announced it had been contracted by the RMAF to upgrade multiple C-130 aircraft with the work commencing in 2025. At the show, a company spokesman said there are currently three RMAF C-130s at its Waco, Texas, facility with the first expected to be returned to Morocco by the end of 2027. L3Harris will work on 11 of the 15 aircraft in the fleet, with the contract completed by the end of 2029. This will include maintenance, an upgrade of the company’s Flight 2 systems and fleet rehabilitation.

The spokesperson added: “The old cockpit dials are now getting more difficult to support and going digital is now the only option for many air forces.” 

The company is prime contractor for the upgrade of 124 C-130Hs and ten ski-equipped LC-130Hs, for the US Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve with its Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) Increment 2 solution which includes the Collins Aerospace Flight 2 system. The deal was contracted in June 2019, and was followed by a second in early 2021 that is seeing L3Harris perform parallel depot level maintenance and painting at Waco that can now be combined with the avionics upgrade.

In Morocco, Maintenance Aero Maroc (MAM) has now completed the overhaul of a first RMAF C-130H at its facility located at Bensliman air base. A model of the aircraft, CN-AOO (c/n 4877), was on display at its stand, which the company said took around 17 months to complete, which was interrupted by COVID supply issues. Going forward MAM says this timeframe will be reduced for the second aircraft currently receiving attention. It has aspirations to overhaul the whole fleet but how this interface with the newly modernised aircraft at Waco, Texas by L3Harris is unclear. The RMAF is believed to be working on two at Bensliman too.

MAM brings together Belgian MRO specialist Sabena Engineering, US defence contractor Lockheed Martin and MDZ, the infrastructure development subsidiary of Morocco’s CDG Group. RMAF F-16 maintenance work is planned to commence in late 2027-28 in the new hangar that is being built. Sabena Engineering along with Sabca already handle the maintenance, repair and overhaul and have a long history of overhauling USAF and European F-16s and more recently Ukrainian ones.

MAM broke ground on its new heavy maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) at Benslimane Airport on October 15, 2025, with the facility expected to become operational in February 2027. This will allow the company to work on more than one Hercules at a time, as it looks to gain more work from African Hercules countries.

Lockheed Martin is currently marketing its C-130J to the RMAF and were displaying a model of one in RMAF marks at their stand, but any deal is unlikely to occur in the foreseeable future because of the Hercules modernisation programme.

Photo by A. Warnes