Yea but a planes gotta be pretty good to be in production from 1954 to the present. That’s 69 years of production, and it’s still the most effective aircraft in its class. The us military tried to replace it, and failed only because of the immense challenges in getting any other plane to do what the C-130 does with ease. The C-130 can carry a quarter of the payload of the C-17 at three quarters of the range of a C-17 to a runway less than half the length required for a C-17 for a 20th of the cost. It’s a matter of numbers. No plane can even hope to compete with the C-130, whether in its class or not. It is simply the best plane for the job under almost any circumstances.
