The Nimrod R1 was ment to have been given a temporary reprive and would not be withdrawn until after the Libyian situation was under control-looks like the MOD have been forced to pull the rug from under the Nimrods feet yet again.
All this stems from the tragic accidident involving a Nimrod MR2A aircraft that exploded after refueling,due to a serious design fault of the refueling system and NOT the Nimrod aircraft.
The knives have been out for it ever since from certain quarters,and finally they have got what they wanted.
The UK now has no long range maritime recon/survelliance aircraft.That will please the international drug smugglers.
The Sentinal R1`s are out in Afghanistan and are for the chop when they return,despite being less than 10 years old.
So the venerable Nimrod has been shoved on to the scrapheap once and for,all despite billions of pounds spent on refit`s and redesign`s to keep the aircraft servicable and up to date for another 20 years at least.
Nimrod has served the UK very well in many guises,and it`s to be replaced with leased US RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft,which doubtless won`t understand European weather.
Someone in the MOD needs their backside kicked.
