Air Transport Squadron 61 (JMSDF)

Air Transport Squadron 61
第61航空隊
Active	20 December 1971
Country	Japan
Branch	Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
Part of	Fleet Air Force
Garrison/HQ	Naval Air Facility Atsugi
Aircraft flown
Transport	LC-90, C-130R

Air Transport Squadron 61 (第61航空隊, dairokujuuichikoukuutai) (also referred to as VC-61 or Fleet Air Squadron 61) is a unit in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force. It is a part of the Fleet Air Force and is based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Kanagawa prefecture.^[1][2] It operates LC-90 and Lockheed C-130R Hercules aircraft.

The squadron was founded at Atsugi Naval Air Facility on December 20, 1971 equipped with NAMC YS-11 aircraft. In 1989 it began to operate the LC-90, and in November 2014 the unit began to operate five former Lockheed Martin KC-130R tanker aircraft of the US Marine Corps. They were stripped of their refueling equipment and redesigned as C-130R aircraft.^[3] In December 2014 the squadron's YS-11s were retired. The former US C-130s came into service from 2014 to 2016.^[4]

In the past the squadron has also operated Grumman S-2F-U Tracker, Douglas C-27 Skytrain RFD-6 and Beechcraft B65 Queen Air aircraft.

• Douglas C-27 Skytrain RFD-6
• Grumman S-2F-U Tracker
• Beechcraft B65 Queen Air
• YS-11M/M-A (1971-2014)
• LC-90 (1989-)
• Lockheed C-130R (2014-)

• Aircraft
• 
  YS-11M taking off from Atsugi (2013)
• 
  LC-90 landing at Atsugi (2017)
• 
  Lockheed C-130R landing at Atsugi (2016)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Air Transport Squadron 61 (JMSDF).