MRA4 was due to enter service 2003, first flight was 2004.
Wrong. Not a bit wrong...flat wrong.
At the time the contract was signed in 1996 the Nimrod was due to enter service (and certainly be flying in 2000).
Very soon after the contract was signed the whole thing was re-baselined to the dates you suggest.
If you read all the defence white papers from 1995 thru to 2003 you can unravel the early smoke and mirrors associated with this project.
PS as mysekf and many other posters have stated, this is not primarily the fault of BAE, so no need for more robust defence of them. The fault lies primarily with the interfering politicians (buy british, even when the bid is evidently b**llocks) and the MOD procurment process that has always been a CF of biblical proportions.
PS
Much more media interest than I was expecting. If a frontline investigative journalist were to run with this we might get an enquiry on this whole sorry project after all. Journo's...the research is going to be a piece of p**s because there are going to be hundreds of unemployed BAE, RAF and MOD engineers and aircrew with a story to tell, a voice to be heard and a cause to fight.