Well why dont we ground the Nimrod tommorow if that makes people feel any better, that is what people want is it not. Close the airbase at Kinloss, make redundent the couple of thousand aircrew and ground staff or post them on.a few hundred civvy staff will become redundent but no matter the area is the poorest county in the whole UK, a few hundred jobs wont matter the main thing is a few people will be happy with this.
SAR can be handed over to the herc fleet they can easily provide the UKs cover which is one of the largest areas in the whole world, many fishermen will be happy at least they have an aircraft designed to carry cargo looking for them on a bleak winters night and some guy can lob out a dingy out the back.
Other aircraft can provide counter terrorism survelliance and coordination and a lot more other things that people do not know. God forbid if London attacks were to happen again, who is going to fly overhead and coordinate things. I guess we would have to buy some new aircraft to provide survelliance and eavsdropping to prevent any home attacks that may happen.
Or does the military fly what it has got , make it as safe as possible spend some cash to keep it going on till a replacement is available. I guess there will be a risk like all fleet ac that another accident can happen.
2 options open to the MOD, remove it now or fly it.