MRA4 Cancelled, get over it.
Bannock, I think you have mistaken a little knowledge for the full picture.
The MoD are indeed managing, they have shifted their requirements of the RAF and so it all works out fine.
Some people on here have eventually come around to realising that there is a new game to be played. What was done before has gone. The goalposts have been moved to account for the shorter legs and smaller balls that are now in use.
Not only can the UK Armed Forces no longer reach out with such SAR efforts as could have been the case in years gone by, they could not retake the Falklands or invade another country. OK, Maybe at a push they could capture some of Ireland. They could not stop the Germans trying to overrun France, they could not stop the Soviets coming through Germany or even keep the Spaniards at home for long.
There was a time when Great Britain could have done this kind of thing, but not now. Not only are they unable to do it, they are not being asked to do it. So that makes it all ok, certainly as far as the bean counters are concerned.
Someone has to be in charge. Being so will not make them right, but someone has to be in charge. The people in charge have decided that we will, as a country, do only what can be done with the reduced assets now at the disposal of the armed forces.
That's just the way it is.
The loss of the MPA capacity has been balanced, as I see it, by the MoD deciding not to care about the things that can no longer be dealt with by the reduced RAF.
If and when the MoD decide that the RAF (or the FAA) need to patrol above the seas a long way from land, or do any of the Secret Squirrel tasks that the Nimrod (in all its flavours) is known for, then they will need to provide a suitable airframe to do it with.
The MR2 crews were not going out there doing things because things needed to be done, they were going out doing it because they were instructed and permitted to do so.
Those crew members may well still want to do it, and they may well still think that it needs doing. However, the people in charge say no. So why is it so hard for so many people to just do as they are told?
Time will tell if this (short term) slaughter of the country's Maritime Patrol capability has been a good or bad idea, but it will not matter what anyone in a blue (any shade of blue) suit thinks. Right or wrong, the people responsible will all be safely home in time for tea and medals, with a very secure pension to fall back on.
We need to split the capacity for doing the work from the issues with that particular airframe. You may not be as aware of all of the issues with the MRA4 as the head of bean counting is.
Ask yourself, which you would prefer, no MPA or the wrong MPA?
We do not have the option of being able to say that anything is better than nothing.
That's been said before and look where it got people.