Originally Posted by
Asturias56
Back on topic - there are 9 aircraft on order - how many do people think are necessary?
AVM Roberts (Retired) provided written evidence to the House Of Commons Select Committee on Defence in 2012 and 2018 on the need for a replacement for the cancelled Nimrod MRA4 / retired Nimrod MR2.
AVM Roberts previous staff and command appointments in the maritime field included:
- Responsibility for all MPA operations and development of NATO AWACS concepts of operation at Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT), a post which included responsibility for overseeing all Maritime Surveillance Coordination Centres throughout the NATO area [1975–77]
- Command of RAF Kinloss (Nimrod MR1 and 2) [1977–79]
- Chief of Staff at HQ No 18 [maritime] Group, at the same time acting as Chief of Staff (Air) to CINCHAN/CINCEASTLANT at the Northwood headquarters [1987–79].
2012 submission:
https://publications.parliament.uk/p...10/110vw05.htm
Then in 2018, he provided more written evidence that 15/16 x P-8A would be required to provide the same sustained coverage as the 21 x Nimrod MR2 that were retired.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/repo...orth-atlantic/
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/bu...-planes-110231
Spookily, RAF serial numbers reserved long ago for the P-8A were 15 - ZP801 > ZP815.
UK Serials Select ZP to view.
So perhaps 15 was the number early staffing came up with until the small matters of cash available and priorities came into play.
9 was the number the proposed Nimrod MRA4 fleet had been reduced to by various previous salami slicing - 21 (1:1 per MR2) > 18 > 16 > 12 > 9 - before it was binned.
There is a lot of interesting information in the first 2012 paper. For instance, I didn't know that the use of former RAF Nimrod aircrew to train / evaluate on the USN P-8A fleet - as part of what became known as "Seedcorn" - actually originated from a request from the US CNO rather than the other way round. The technical detail regarding comparative radar search capabilities of submarine vs surface vessel vs helicopter vs MPA is fascinating as well.