Charlie - I've tried never to say this (always left it to the parrot behind my right shoulder) "I concur", when the monkey and mbga9pgf understand what the current version does then I may take some notice of their prophecies.
"lack of a flight engineer for 250ft work"
"country no longer has a requirement for the MRA's of any model" - better bring the boys back from the Gulf then
"but as a maritime recon aircraft.... never" - pretty strong words
"but I could never see any maritime role re-emerging.... You just have to look across NATO procurement to twig that one, with numerous NATO countries slashing any maritime support contingent." - USA MMA? Australia - recent upgrade, Japan 100+ P3s to replace, even the Kiwis have just approved an upgrade, there is obviously some Global need for the Maritime role
"fishery protection etc side of the Nimrod role" - not in the last decade
FJ- why not name it Nimrod Multi Role Aircraft 4, MRA4 for short so we can get rid of all those frebbies from BAe still at airshows.
Charlie - there's a Speights on ice if you can make Fincastle.