Nimrod MRA.4

[ShortFatOne]

Maybe it's just me.......

iRaven, I am glad that you feel sufficiently confident in your own future career prospects to be able to post such a childish and immature response. The cancellation of MRA4 not only signifies the untimely end of the last large aircraft ever to be built in this country, it also represents the shattered hopes and dreams of thousands of individuals and will have a distressing impact on whole communities, not just here in Moray.

To have had 70 years of RAF Maritime Air contribution to the defence of the UK and its interests worldwide so roundly dismissed in a 23 second statement to the House showed a total disregard for the efforts of the present incumbents and a complete disdain for our predecessors.

The contribution by MPA Nimrods in many dozens of sorties, over the last 20 years alone, that resulted in some unpleasant individuals being convicted has more than paid for any so called savings that binning MRA4 and closing Kinloss might achieve.

The cost of the illegal drug trade (in terms of its effects on society) are estimated (by the Government) to be in the region of £11-12Bn per year. In order to pay for itself, Kinloss and the MRA4 fleet would have had to prevent something in the region of 2% of the trade reaching the streets. I did 2 sorties in the same year back in the mid 90's. Different ops, both resulting in seizure and conviction. The estimated street value, even back then, of those 2 hauls was £650Mil +. Those 2 sorties were just 2 of at least a dozen successes that year.

This was just a small (but rewarding and important) part of life on a maritime sqn and maritime station. The Government have decided that 30 years of hard won experience and excellence (RAF MPA crews were very highly regarded by all of our allies and many of our not so friendly adversaries) is no longer needed or can be achieved by other means (although they struggle to explain how exactly). It was widely acknowledged that Nimrod crews were certainly in the top 3 nations as far as ASW was concerned. But the utility of the crews did not stop there.

Not content with being amongst the best in the world at ASW, we went out to make ourselves the best in the world at ASuW, pretty damn good at SAR, pretty damn good at overland roles etc etc etc.

If assets such as these hard-working, proud and professional people, who were within spitting distance of getting a new aircraft, can be dumped along with the platform, without so much as a 'Thank You for all your efforts', then I would suggest that your blinding confidence in your own security is somewhat misplaced.