"I made that statement on the basis of detailed contact with nimrod crew and engineers. I did not make that statement lightly. The contacts made it clear that they were not happy with the continuation of the original AAR system on the MRA4
WHY - without sustance this is just personal opinion, not a valid robust technical judgement on its safety
they also made it clear that there is no current plan to fit fuel tank protection to the nimrod.
SO WHAT - fitting system X does not automatically a safe aircaft make. Assumption & speculation.
Both of these statements contradict your argument that air safety considerations are not being compromised."
I didn't say this - you are implying that these statements PROVE that air safety considerations are being compromised - seems to me THEY DO NOT.
Must stress I have no direct knowledge here, but until BoI is out we should not speculate or feed the MP with "potentially suspect but unproven either way" motives with potentially misleading facts.