SteamChicken,
This thread would not have turned into a 'row' about the Nimrod had arsebandituk known what he was talking about and then accepted that fact when the replies rolled in.
It started with the following in one of his earlier posts...
"Final Comment: “What Mr Ingram should have said concerning the FA2 decision.”"...
..."f. The Nimrod is not an effective Anti-Submarine Warfare vehicle. Even with better avionic systems that may allow it to detect and prosecute a submarine threat, this will be of limited use to the Nation because:
i. The agreed submarine threat against the UK mainland is now low (Strategic Defence Review);
ii The Nimrod is a land based aircraft with limited range and can not therefore support Fleet/JTF operations away from the UK base “without prepositioning” (Defence Policy 2001 Statement).
The £3 billion (US$4.3 billion) being spent on the Nimrod upgrade would therefore be better spent on maintaining an effective first line of air defence for the Fleet and on upgrading the already proven Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare systems."
And was later followed by...
"It is very clear that the Nimrod has an important role to play in SAR (and perhaps, local fisheries protection). But £2.8 billion for an upgrade? We could do the same task for less than half the price by buying and using new civil aircraft."
With the subject of this thread being maritime related it is hardly surprising that many in the Nimrod fleet will read it.
As I have said before, the base line of alphaleaderdrunks argument is very valid, it is incredible that the SHAR is for the chop and all should be done to save this vital fleet asset. Where alphacluelessuk went wrong was to start to slag off other aircraft types where his knowledge seems to extend no further than the names of the aircraft. He was just unfortunate (or was it planned?) to slag off Nimrods in a thread that we read with interest (after all, the SHAR CAP also protects us, unless alphaleadsnoone is around as he doesn't even know we are there!!). If we started to slag off the SHAR, getting our facts wrong about its roles and capabilities, I am sure there would be a massive response putting us right. That is all we are doing, giving the facts (as far as permissible) on the capabilities and roles of the Nimrod.
Answer your question?
Mad Mark!!!
