Biggus, indeed, bit like lottery balls, the numbers keep changing.
While the Nimrod might be the best ASW aircraft in the world and have the best chance of catching the most elusive submarine, a target rich environment is only good if you have enough hunters to cover the ground.
Chuck in a relatively low-tech role and you need lots of eyes in the sky, eyes we haven't got.
We once 'swept' about 130,000 sq miles of the India Ocean in 4 hours. Two Nimrods then swept the same area in 12 aircraft hours and IDd the only 3 vessels we had found - two were yachts.
We either up the ante or get out of the game.