The Nimrod Saga: A Personal Touch Take 2

Following on from the previous post about the Nimrod MRA.4 and the two prototypes sat idle at Woodford Aerodrome, I contacted my MP and received the following reply from Peter Luff, the Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology:

‘Thank you for your letter of 18 May enclosing correspondence from your constituent, Mr Richard Stockley, about the MOD’s plans for surplus Nimrod MRA.4 aircraft.

I fully appreciate Mr Stockley’s concerns over the future of the two Nimrod MRA.4 trials aircraft that are currently in storage at BAE Systems’ Woodford plant, following the completion of their involvement in the MRA.4 flight trials programme. As Mr Stockley notes, the Nimrod MRA.4 is currently being introduced in to service to replace the Nimrod MR.2, which was retired from service on 31 March 2010.

The option to convert the two pre-production aircraft to production standard has been considered in detail on a number of occasions but the cost estimates are unaffordable within existing financial provisions. Furthermore, the essential operational tasks of the MRA.4 fleet can be met with a fleet of nine aircraft.

Mr Stockley’s helpful suggestions that the surplus aircraft be retained as an attrition reserve or retained as instructional airframes are, in fact, impracticable as the trials aircraft were not built to the same design standard as the production aircraft and are thus not representative of the in-service fleet. Either course of action would require a costly conversion of the aircraft to the production standard before the production line closes in 2012.

A number of options remain under consideration for the aircraft. However, on a personal note I can assure you that, should a decision be taken to dispose of the trials aircraft, they will be stripped of all items that could be used as spares for the production aircraft.

I hope this explains the position to Mr Stockley’s satisfaction.

You’ve got to accept that the man does have a point, as a nation we are skint and to bring them up to production standard will cost a packet. But as I mentioned in my previous post, there were three Nimrod MRA.4 development aircraft, ZJ517 (PA03), will be fed into the production line and become an operational aircraft. So the concept is feasible, unless PA01 and PA02’s design differs greatly from PA03. Also, the fleet of nine aircraft may not always be there, it only takes a ground handling mishap, a bird-strike or a hanger fire to seriously deplete their numbers, and if these two prototype aircraft were to be scrapped, where would the replacements come from? That to me is the most important issue regarding the prototypes.

Hopefully, with an eye on long term-ism, the airframes will be preserved and converted when the financial climate is somewhat sunnier – fingers crossed! On a positive note though, it is good to see that the MOD have at least given it some serious consideration.

Tags: Nimrod