Speaking at a ceremony held on Sunday to unveil the overhauled military plane, General Mansour Mohammadi, the commander of Shahid Doran Air Base in Iran’s southern city of Shiraz, said the technicians of the air base overhauled the airplane that had been out of service for years.
It took experts at the air base more than 30,000 man-hours to overhaul the military plane, the commander stated.
The military airplane made successful test flights after the overhaul and returned to service, he went on to say.
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin.
Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport aircraft.
Before the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the overhaul of military planes in Iran was carried out by foreign military attaché. But today the Islamic Republic is able to overhaul military aircraft thanks to reliance on the capabilities of the country's committed engineers and technicians.
Iran has become one of only a handful of countries capable of performing the servicing and overhaul of its fleet of airplanes, both military and civilian.