The Pakistan Air Force will get five C-130 plane cockpit upgrade kits from the United States to improve operational capabilities of the ageing fleet of its main transport aircraft.

The United States Air Force has awarded the $6 million contract to Rockwell Collins for supplying avionics kits to the PAF, Dawn reported on Monday.

A spokesman for the PAF said the air force would be getting the upgrade kits for its current fleet. It is one of the components of the $75 million agreement with the US government that also included the sale of six C-130 aircraft to Pakistan.

The upgrade contract will be completed in a year and it is expected that the PAF will start getting the deliveries by the later part of 2008.

"The upgrade project would help us benefit from the technological advancements on C-130s," he said.

Although, the details of what would be covered under the package have not been disclosed, it has been learnt that the avionics and display systems company is likely to provide communication, navigational and surveillance system, including Flight 26X8 inch multi-function displays, AN /ARC-210 radios, SAT-2000, multimode receivers and automatic direction finder.

After the upgrades the C-130s are expected to have improved situational awareness, reduced crew workload and enhanced flight safety features.