The Hercules, registration number CH-08, was put in service in 1973 and was officially retired on late December 2017. To avoid a 6 to 7 months long major maintenance, the BAF opted not to operate it anymore. "This decomissioning does not have an immediate effect on our support for operations," the military stated.





The ten remaining C-130Hs are being flown by the 20th Squadron, 15th Air Transport Wing, based in Melsbroek , in North-Eastern Brussels.

"The CH-08 will be used in the form of spare parts for the benefit of the rest of the fleet", the Belgian military said. "In this way, the availability of the other aircraft will be improved, and they will therefore remain operational for a longer time," it added.

Starting 2020, the entire fleet of C-130H - counting 250,300 flight hours - will be replaced by seven A400M aircraft. In June 2017, The BAF temporarily withdrew from service its C-130Hs due to safety concerns. The aircraft were grounded for two weeks while checks were carried out following repeated "abnormal functioning of flight controls".