I try not to post rumour, I am sourcing these posts on engineering concerns from people I trust. Will get back to you on the points you raise. What concerns me is that we lost XV179 due to a fuel tank explosion. It remains to be seen what finally brought down XV230, but a lot of attention has been paid to tank 7. I would have thought that following the tragic loss of life in both XV230 and XV179 the RAF would be at the forefront of fuel tank safety. Well after XV179 for a while the UK was still the only nation in Europe not to have demanded fuel tank protection on A400M. That changed 2 days after yours truly appeared on C4 News and pointed this out.
Why on earth hasn't someone gripped Nimrod safety. I am very very sorry that all this has to play out in public, but I can guarantee you that as we speak, the RAF has not insisted on any of this increased safety on MRA4.
You could argue that the RAF is breaching health and safety law, in the same way that the Met was taken to court over danger to the public in the Menezes case.