The US defence production giant Lockheed Martin has delivered the first batch of six C-130J military transport aircraft to the Indian Air Force. The new fleet was ordered under a 1.2 billion US Dollars US Foreign Military Sale in late 2008.The state-of-the-art C-130J Hercules is the most advanced airlifter ever built.AIR correspondent reports, the IAF's new Super Hercules will be the longer fuselage or stretched variant of the C-130J, similar to those being delivered to the US Air Force. With this, India joins the growing number of nations with C-130J fleets including US, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom. Equipped with an Infrared Detection Set (IDS), the aircraft will be able to perform precision low-level flying, airdrops, and landing in blackout conditions. Self protection systems and other features are included to ensure aircraft survivability in hostile air defence environments. In addition, the aircraft is equipped with air-to-air receiver refuelling capability for extended range operations. The C-130J takes full advantage of the Global Positioning System and other highly reliable, automated navigation and route planning aides.This allows the cockpit crew to focus on the mission and on flying rather than on managing aircraft systems. The military transport aircraft was received by the Indian Defence and Military Attache Brigadier Bhupesh Kumar Jain and Air Attache Air Commodore J S Walia at a ceremony held in Marietta, Georgia in the US.