The Kuwait Air Force (KAF) will take delivery of three KC-130J tanker aircraft from Lockheed Martin under a $245m US foreign military sale contract.
The KAF will use the new KC-130Js for aerial refuelling of its F-18 fleet and increase its current airlift fleet of three Lockheed Martin L-100s.
It will also use the aircraft to perform air mobility, disaster relief and humanitarian missions throughout the world.
The KC-130J can offload 57,500lb of fuel using only wing and external tanks and has been upgraded with a fuselage tank to add 24,392lb of available fuel.
Equipped with the standard probe-and-drogue configuration, the KC-130J is suitable for use with fixed and rotary-wing aircraft.
It has the same airlift capability as non-tanker variants, including airdrop and paradrop.
Lockheed will deliver the first KC-130J to Kuwait in late 2013 and complete the entire delivery by early 2014.