There is a particularly interesting article on the PC-12's that are employed in special operations missions all over the world. The article was occasioned by the *official naming* that's been applied - Draco (dragon).

The fleet has passed 500,000 hours and has performed very well indeed and economically according to the article. One of the comments illustrated the economy - "A standard non-military PC-12 reportedly costs just around $500 per flight hour to operate. "We can provide four hours' station time, plus an hour there and back, and land using less fuel than it takes a C-130 just to start and taxi to the runway," Captain David had also told Military.com.

Their direct operating costs are figured a little differently than ours methinks. There is also good commentary about how it fits in with the MC-12's, the King Air 350ER's also operated by AFSOC.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/2 ... l-nickname

Cheers

A Piper Cub (L-4) could do the same for the fuel a PC-12 uses for start and taxi.

Mike C.

Mike you don't know what it did while on station.
I don’t either. But I doubt a cub could perform the mission.

A PC-12 can't do a C-130 mission.

That's the point.

Mike C.

I suspect the vast majority of the C-130’s capability remains unused in most missions...