On Wednesday, 25 March, a delegation from the Turkish Air Force visited Marshall Aerospace’s Cambridge headquarters to observe progress on the through-life support programme for its fleet of 12 C-130J Super Hercules aircraft.
The group was led by Brigadier General Volkan Ersun Acar (Director, 2nd Air Maintenance Factory) and Lieutenant Colonel Halis Can Polat (Manager, Depot Level Maintenance Factory), with further support from Turkish Air Force representatives stationed on-site at Marshall.
The programme is now well underway: since late 2025, Marshall has been working on multiple Turkish Air Force aircraft concurrently, including paint strip, surveys, depth maintenance and structural replacements.
During their visit, Brigadier General Acar and Lieutenant Colonel Polat were able to view one of the Turkish Air Force aircraft following removal of its centre wing box—a major piece of primary structure that takes months of intensive work to replace. Marshall maintains a dedicated facility for centre wing box replacement, and will conduct several more of these procedures on Turkish Air Force C-130J aircraft over the next few years.
left to right: Lieutenant Colonel Fazil Sönmez, Andrew Smith (Head of MRO Programmes, Marshall Aerospace), Brigadier General Volkan Ersun Acar, Colonel Mustafa Erbay, Lieutenant Colonel Halis Can Polat
“We are grateful for this opportunity to show the progress being made on this major programme.
“We look forward to working closely together with the Turkish Air Force and Turkish Ministry of Defence to deliver a modern, world-class tactical airlift fleet over the coming years.”
Andrew Smith
Head of MRO Programmes, Marshall Aerospace
The multi-year entry-into-service contract was awarded to Marshall in late 2025 and covers entry into service and sustainment for all 12 aircraft, including scheduled maintenance, spares, tooling and training.
In partnership with the UK Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) Export & Sales (E&S), Marshall supported the resale process as the Principal Retail Partner for these aircraft, while conducting ongoing anti-deterioration maintenance and storage at its facility in Cambridge, UK.