I would thought that such suspension was sensible - after all, I believe that the Nimrod AAR capability was a 'quick fix' for the Falkands campaign which then stayed as part of the capabilities of the ac - like other ac I could mention. As there have been less tankers to play with for some years now and those that remain are very busy trucking elsewhere, perhaps the Nimrod's AAR bits had gone unused for a while and eventually becoming 'less serviceable'? Also, this would give the engineers less opportunity to spot any problems early.
Anyone know if this is the case, or have the 'rods been doing lots of tanking recently?
If the AAR piping has not been kept 'well-oiled', is there any read-across to other fleets that haven't been doing much tanking recently - ie all of them?
One for the BOI to ponder I suspect!