Ivan,
I'm a big fan of many of the pieces of kit which I describe as less useful AT THE MOMENT than Nimrod R (and the capability it offers). I would not advocate not buying Tranche 3 of Typhoon, for example.
I just view the 51 Squadron capability as being of really pivotal and vital importance.
As to platforms, I'd see the A330 - especially if Airbus ever build a short one - or an A300 with a 330 cockpit as being pretty well-suited to the role, and with good commonality with the FSTA platform.
Or perhaps an A340....
Or if money's really too tight, then buy a bunch of A320s for ISTAR, future AEW, and Blair Force One type duties.....
Anything much smaller than a Nimrod and you could not accomodate the full mission crew, and all the equipment (and pies) required. Indeed, 51 would doubtless say that today's Nimrod is just a little bit more cramped than they'd like, and that the fact that they've lost key non-operational facilities on board is a testament to the lack of space on the jet.
The Nimrod R way of doing things, including the crew size, is most assuredly not broken, so a 'fix' involving a smaller type with a smaller crew does not strike me as being a great idea.
Indeed, there'd be something to be said for giving the aircraft some EO-LOROP/FLIR capabilities, with a couple of extra crew positions and rather better crew rest, toilet and galley facilities.
While the idea of waiting for the US and selecting a common platform, my understanding is that they have very different philosophies and doctrine - such that what the US Navy would look for to replace the EP-3E would be a different size and class of aircraft to what the USAF would want/need as a next generation Rivet Joint - which might, in turn, be different to what 51 would want as an optimised aircraft, and which would almost certainly be 767 based - a choice that would make sense for the US, but not for the UK.
LJR,
Easy to make cheap cracks, mate, but obviously a bit harder for you to articulate your objections....
Are you claiming that a UAV can do Elint in the same way as Nimrod R and Rivet Joint do? Or that you'd have the same ability to do real time exploitation and interpretation regardless of bandwidth considerations? Or even that existing UAVs would be as suitable as Nimrod R for mounting the various antennas required?