Interesting point, Gorilla makes. If the RN have assured ministers that they can take care of any threat to the integrity of our BM capability using ships, subs and Merlin... and if they guarantee that they will cope adequately with any maritime terrorist threat to the UK or react to drug smugglers at short notice etc, ... and if we have no major life threatening SAR event (Piper Alpha) over the next 2 years that could have been lessened by Nimrod cover - will the Treasury see it as justification to cut MPA altogether? There won't be a capability gap if other assets (on paper) can take on the job and nothing actually happens to put them to the test. I'm sure the Dutch never envisioned losing the P3 force 10 years ago...