So what you're saying is there are absolutely no other options that could do these taskings? A Nimrod is the World's only SAR aircraft, it's also the World's sole aircraft that can act as an airborne comms middleman, it's the only fixed wing ASW plane in the market, it's the only recce asset in the Western World, etc. etc.
An alternative view from those outside your MATZ would be that our Scottish MPs sitting in London daren't can the Nimrod force for fear of a Jockanese backlash and even in these days of financial squeeze have been railroaded into pouring more money into an ageing platform.
My exasperation is not aimed at your force per se but at our procurement process, which invariably has such rigid government conditions imposed on it that a single result is the only outcome, eg. pick any helicopter you want provided it's made in Yeovil, let competition decide the best replacement for the Hawk trainer - provided it's called a Hawk, those american carriers are awesome - bet if we cobbled together a consortium of has-been shipbuilders and asked them to replicate it would be just as good rather than buy off-the-shelf, etc. etc.
Have you not noticed that across all these threads
is the most commonly used smily?