Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the planned out of service dates are for the RAF's (a) Hercules C1/C3 (K) and (b) Hercules C4/C5 (J) variants; and what plans his Department has to procure a replacement for those aircraft's specialist capability.

The Hercules C-130K model (CMk 1 and Mk3) retired from service on 31 December 2012.The Hercules C-130J CMk4 are scheduled to retire from RAF service on 31 March 2035. The Hercules C-130J CMk5 has begun an approved drawdown plan, and the final aircraft will leave service in 2019.We are procuring the A400M to assume the roles performed by all variants of the Hercules C-130J aircraft.