Lockheed EC-130 : Ask Biography

Home | Aircraft | Lockheed EC-130

The Lockheed EC-130J is a modified C-130J Hercules used to conduct psychological operations (PSYOP) and civil affairs broadcast missions in the standard AM, FM, HF, TV and military communications bands. Missions are flown at the maximum altitudes possible to ensure optimum propagation patterns. The EC-130J flies during either day or night scenarios with equal success, and is air-refuelable. A typical mission consists of a single-ship orbit which is offset from the desired target audience. The targets may be either military or civilian personnel. The Commando Solo is operated exclusively by the 193d Special Operations Wing, which is based at the Harrisburg International Airport in Middletown, Pennsylvania.

Other EC-130 variants include the USAF EC-130H Compass Call and the since retired USAF EC-130E ABCCC and since retired US Navy EC-130Q TACAMO aircraft.

The EC-130H Compass Call is an airborne communications jamming platform. It was used extensively in the Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom, disrupting Iraqi communications at both the strategic and tactical levels. It has also been used in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

The ABCCC was the Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center used as an airborne command post, while the EC-130Q TACAMO ("Take Charge and Move Out") served as a SIOP strategic communications link aircraft for the U.S. Navy's Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) submarine force and as a backup communications link for the USAF manned strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile forces.