http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?c=AIR&s=TOP&i=4535359
RAF Accepts 1st Nimrod MRA4
By andrew chuter
Published: 11 Mar 2010 14:12
LONDON - The first BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 maritime surveillance aircraft destined for the Royal Air Force has been formally accepted and declared ready for crew training by Britain's Ministry of Defence.
The aircraft is the first of nine MRA4s ordered to fulfill maritime and wider intelligence surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance roles for the air force here.
Handover of the first production aircraft may have taken place but it will be 2012 before the machine is introduced into service following a decision by the government late last year to delay its operational debut in order to help cut Britain's defense equipment overspend.
The decision also involved taking the current Nimrod MR2 surveillance aircraft out of service at the end of this month, 12 months earlier than planned. The move leaves Britain with no credible long-range maritime surveillance capability for about two years.
The MR2's exit from service was hurried by a 2006 crash in Afghanistan that killed 14 and raised questions about its safety.
Defense ministers have said the gap between the departure of the MR2 and the arrival of the MRA4 will be covered by helicopters and Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130s.
The first MRA4 has moved from the Woodford, England, production facility to BAE's Warton site for RAF crew training. The machine is scheduled to transfer to its main operating base at Kinloss, Scotland, in late summer once an initial release to service and a support contract are in place.
The second of the nine production standard MRA4s flew earlier this month and deliveries of the nine aircraft are planned to be complete by 2012.
Eight of the aircraft were heavily upgraded MR2 airframes with new engines and missions systems.
The ninth aircraft is one of three pre-production aircraft originally upgraded by BAE for test flying. The remaining two test machines will be placed in storage having already retired from the development program.
Delivery of the final aircraft will see BAE close the Woodford manufacturing site near Manchester later in the year.
The formal acceptance of the first aircraft is a further step toward the conclusion of a program which has been dogged for years by technical issues and cost overruns.
Twenty-one of the aircraft were originally ordered by the MoD with an in-service date of 2003. The number of airframes has been continually reduced: first to 18 and then to 12 before the government finally settled on just nine aircraft.