Off topic but...
We've had FOUR TCAS RAs in the last week alone in Afghan airspace, one of which caused us some serious alarm and caused me to question my belief in big sky theory! I know of two others within the Telic JOA in the same time frame.
I am somewhat surprised that the Nimrod fleet doesn't have TCAS, a basic safety system which is widely available and previously embodied in other military types, with or without SIFF. I would have to think very carefully whether I would be willing to operate an ac into Telic airspace without TCAS.
Has the Nimrod IPT and command chain been so focussed on making the ac 'relevant' that it's missed some fairly fundamental areas of basic safety?
As an aside...
Theatre comms are notoriously fickle and I'm not in the least surprised that someone didn't hear/respond to the mayday to KAF. Mind you, with all the box switching that occurs, I wouldn't rule out a switch pigs either...
Forgive my intrusion...