MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. - The Marine Aerial Refueler and Transport Squadron 252 detachment in Iraq needs to have all six of its KC-130 Hercules aircraft ready all the time, but it also needs to conduct inspections that can ground an aircraft for two weeks.

The solution is a plane swap. The KC-130 due for inspection returns to Cherry Point after a replacement from the Air Station arrives to a destination overseas.

The VMGR-252 Marines here sent a KC-130 to Al Asad, Jan. 11, to take the place of one that is due for inspection. The aircraft to be examined is en route to Cherry Point, where squadron maintenance mechanics wait to begin the evaluation.

In the Marine air community, only the KC-130 community performs routine plane swaps, said Capt. John Bowes, the flight operations officer. Other squadrons can’t perform the operation because their aircraft simply don’t have the same long-range capability as the KC-130. The load bearing threshold and fuel capacity of the KC-130 make a flight across the ocean not only conceivable, but a practical solution to the problem of inspections grounding aircraft.

“The long-range capability of the aircraft allows us to swap it out and keep our aircraft up in theater,” said Bowes. “Obviously, helicopters can’t fly across the ocean, and obviously, all the jets need tanker support.”

The KC-130’s fuel capacity, 57,500 lbs., allows it to make the transcontinental flight without stops, said Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Mozingo, the assistant staff non-commissioned officer in charge of VMGR-252 maintenance control. Even with a payload of 40,000 lbs., a KC-130 can travel 2,000 miles nonstop.

With a smaller load and proper atmospheric conditions, a KC-130 can fly from here to Iraq in two days, said Bowes.

Not only does the plane swap keep KC-130s in theater, it improves deployed Marines quality of living. The VMGR-252 Marines here loaded care packages onto the departing KC-130. Mozingo said plane swaps are often used to provide aid to Marines overseas.

Mozingo said plane swaps take place once or twice a year.

Thanks to the long-range capability of the KC-130, VMGR-252 ensures that Marine Corps fighter squadrons always have the refueling support to carry out their mission.