Rare Brazilian Air Force C-130M Hercules Makes Stopover In Italy On Its Way To Israel.

The Brazilian C-130M about to land at Pisa Airport on Jul. 6, 2020. (Image credit: Claudio Tramontin)

The aircraft, sporting an exotic camouflage paint scheme, made a stop in Pisa before continuing to Ovda, Israel.

A pretty interesting visitor landed at Pisa Airport on Jul. 6, 2020: a Brazilian Air Force C-130M Hercules, registration FAB 2476.

Before being converted to the M standard, this C-130 was an H model, serving with the 46^ Brigata Aerea (Air Brigade) of the Italian Air Force, out of the very same Pisa Airport, with registration MM61997. In fact, starting in 2001, the Brazilian Air Force received the first of ten Italian C-130Hs, acquired from the Aeronautica Militare Italiana that replaced the “legacy” Hercules aircraft with the new “Super Hercules” J models.

C-130M is the designation for the locally modified and upgraded C-130H.

The C-130M on the ground at Pisa Airport.

According to the Italian aviation photographer Marco Papa, the Brazilian C-130M arrived to Pisa from Recife via Las Palmas.

On the following day, Jul. 7, the aircraft, flying as BRS51, flew to Ovda, Israel. During its ferry flight across Italy and the Mediterranean Sea, the Hercules, belonging to the 1° Grupo de Transporte de Tropa (1º GTT), could be tracked online on ADSBExchange.org, by means of its ADS-B/Mode S transponder.

The aircraft returned from Israel via Pisa on Jul. 9, 2020: the reason for the short trip to Ovda, is unknown.

Interestingly, the very same aircraft was heavily involved in firefighting activities, using the the MAFFS (Modular Airborne Fire Fighting) 1 system against Amazon fires in summer 2019:

The Aviationist’ s contributor Claudio Tramontin took the images of the quite rare visitor during its visit to Pisa on Jul. 6, 2020, that you can find in this post.

The C-130M previously operated from Pisa Airport with the ItAF 46th Air Brigade as MM61997.



About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.