1) Subject aired days ago - see
UK considers alternatives to Nimrod R.1 upgrade
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=309239
Uk Jstars?
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=311635
2) As YellerG suggests, the article to which you link is utter, utter toss.
Britain’s needs for surveillance aircraft have become so dire that it has borrowed two surveillance craft from the US.
No it hasn’t. CAS has made it clear that the Rivet Joint plan is just an option.
Last week the US officially lent the Royal Air Force two C-135 electronic monitoring aircraft.
Again, not true. This is a lazy and inaccurate interpretation of the Sunday Times article.
The planes will be painted in RAF colours but will be operated jointly by US and British aircrews.
That might happen, but there’s no confirmation.
Problems with the Nimrod MR2 have gotten so bad in recent weeks that the RAF was literally running out of surveillance aircraft. Fuel leaks have persisted in the fleet and forced the air force to ground several of the planes used for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Budget problems have led to delays on the new Nimrod MRA4 entering service in the next year.
More confusion. The R1 and MR2 are quite different beasts, with quite different problems. Nimrod MRA4 is not delayed due to ‘budget problems’ alone.
The leasing of the C-135 Rivet Joint aircraft will bring some relief to personnel on surveillance operations. The planes are similar to the Nimrod in terms of size and speed but can hold a much larger crew (27 compared to 10). Their range is however is far less than the Nimrod, 3,900 miles compared to 6,910 miles.
The Nimrod R1 has a crew of 29, and seating for 32 – about the same as the RC-135 in terms of capacity, but with a bigger mission crew.
However it represents an embarassing climdown for the RAF who had claimed to have fixed most of the problems that have belittled the aircraft over the last few years.
Etc.