The federal government announced Friday the conditional sale of 10 retired CC-130H Hercules military aircraft to Coulson Aviation, a company based in Port Alberni, B.C., which will convert them for aerial firefighting. Stephen Fuhr, secretary of state for defence procurement, stated that each plane will require approximately 20,000 hours of labor for conversion, with the first aircraft expected to be ready for service within 12 months. The CC-130H Hercules, traditionally used for military transport, evacuations, and search and rescue, has been replaced by Lockheed Martin's more modern CC-130J-class planes.