Enough Already!
Waiting for the beer bottles and spitoons coming from the public bar I would like to congratulate olddog on bringing direction to this topic.
The Nimrod is an out of date airframe that is perpetuating 1940's technology and intelligence techniques. The time has come for the UK to stop, put down Clausewitz and look at the future direction of conflicts, and intelligence gathering from the position of a small Island nation between two powerful and diverging powers, Europe and the USA.
The future of servicing and maintenance often quoted will be like all military support functions privatized in the not so distant future. The direction of hardware will be towards easily replaced, and easily maintained equipment, based if possible on proven civilian platforms. The P-8A Poseidon is an example of the issues, and the commercial solution. Above all any platform must be scalable, capable of global sales, and global provision of spares from civilian stocks.
That aside these postings, and yes I have read them all, have mistakenly shown the Chinese and Russians that the the rank and file second guess, belittle, and ridicule their military and political leaders over a single, though regrettable incident in a military fiasco that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and will continue for decades.
We are standing in the middle of the road, arguing about the twisted frame on a bicycle and not noticing the 18 wheeled truck bearing down on us.
Buy the report, mutter in your beer, and close this thread!