Nige
As you probably are aware the current MR2 has a Armour fit in place, but with operating altitudes blah blah there is no requirement for an aircraft with the job its doing to have any fitted they are well out of reach of small arms.
Anyway i thought this discussion was about that fatefull day and armour or not had no bearing on what happened!!
Bomb bay suppresion systems, yes maybe things would have turned out diffrent if there had been, but there wasnt and we will see if the BOI finds that an issue in the report.Personally i dont think it would have made one bit of diffrence, you are looking at Rib 1 area and not the bomb bay(close though) but i dont like to speculate ,the proffesionals are on the job and they will find out what happened.they have far more facts than us speculators !!
With the MRA4 having the potential to carry Air to Ground weapons (possability) it would be prudent to have something in place.Im sure with all that has happened there will be recomendations by the BOI ,again that will be down to the user and the cost of implementing improvements.