The 910th Airlift Wing's newest C-130J-30 Super Hercules taxis ahead of its maiden flight at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, Jan. 14, 2025. The second Super Hercules aircraft arrived on station in December as part of YARS' three-year conversion from C-130H Hercules aircraft. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Donnie Hatheway)

VIENNA — The second of eight new C-130J-30 Super Hercules aircraft that will come to the Youngstown Air Reserve Station through mid-2026 recently had its first local flight.

The aircraft landed at the Vienna base in December and took its first local flight Jan. 14, said Senior Master Sgt. Bob Barko Jr., the base’s superintendent of public affairs.

The base had a major event July 16 to welcome the first C-130J-30 that came from Lockheed Martin’s production plant in Marietta, Georgia. But it isn’t publicizing the arrivals of any other of the aircraft except when the last one arrives sometime next year, Barko said.

The remaining six were supposed to arrive about one every three months, with the last one coming in mid-2026. But Barko said Tuesday there isn’t a timeline right now on when the third C-130J-30 aircraft will arrive.

The planes are replacing C-130H models at YARS that were built between 1989 and 1992, and were assigned to the air base in 1994 when the 910th received its airlift wing designation.

The new planes cost about $109.75 million each for a total investment of $878 million.

YARS had 10 C-130H planes, with two of them on backup status. The two backup planes were assigned before the first C-130J-30 arrived July 16, with one for airborne training and the other for aircraft maintenance training.

When a new C-130J-30 comes to YARS, one of the old C-130H aircraft leaves YARS to be reassigned to the National Guard.

Compared to the C-130H, the C-130J reduces manpower requirements by two personnel per aircraft, lowers operating and support costs, flies faster, is more fuel efficient and provides life-cycle cost savings over earlier models, Maloney said.

YARS has about 2,000 employees, most of them reservists and active duty, and an annual economic impact of about $150 million.

The base is home to the U.S. Department of Defense’s only large-area fixed-wing aerial spray unit. It controls disease-carrying insects, pest insects and undesirable vegetation, as well as dispersing oil spills in large bodies of water.

Work to get new planes at the air base started well over a decade ago with Democrat Tim Ryan, a former congressman, instrumental in passing legislation to ensure YARS would be in line to get the state-of-the-art equipment.

In addition to the new planes, an $11 million main gate relocation project broke ground in April 2024 and is expected to be finished by this August, and $8 million was secured to resurface the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport’s 9,000-foot taxiway that leads to the facility’s main runway and connects to YARS, which will begin shortly.

Work is underway to get federal funding for a new $25 million fire station at YARS. The money for the fire station was included in the National Defense Authorization Act, but Congress still needs to pass a defense budget for the project to go forward.

The base received approval in March 2024 for a $2.5 million federal earmark that will be used for planning and design work for the station.

The YARS fire department is one of the largest in Trumbull County and has 42 mutual aid agreements, mostly in Trumbull. The department also provides crash response to the airport.