Two hours worth
It is perhaps of interest that nobody has answered the original question of this thread after some months, other than by guessing and often guessing is all one can do until 25 or 30 years have elapsed and documents presently classified are revealed to public gaze.
It is also perhaps of interest that tiny New Zealand today has more MPA assets than does the UK.
Moreover, NZ is presently upgrading its six P-3C Orions and the first one, after all manner of delays, some of them due to the original airframe and not the new software, not to mention at least one birdstrike during testing, is due back from the US in a few months as the first P-3K2.
I have flown an eight hour sortie in one of the P-3Cs and have no doubt that with the enhanced capabilities of the P-3K2 and its Elta radar that the RNZAF will have both the personnel and the platforms that many other nations will envy.
But while that is pleasing if you are domiciled in NZ, as I am, it is surely fundamentally horribly wrong that the RNZAF should have far greater maritime surveillance capabilities than does the RAF.
Nor are UAVs or RPAs being ignored for when I talked to the Minister of Defence a few weeks ago he acknowledge that they may, in future, have a role to play.
He also mentioned the P-8 and told me about the small fleet of converted commercial aircraft being considered for SAR missions.
The 'two hours later' heading refers to the time it has taken me to read this thread from its beginning.
It is an ironic twist on the ancient adage that capabilities take years to acquire but intentions can change overnight.
The ghosts of the crews of Short Singapores, Sunderlands, Shackletons and MR2s will surely be distressed as they watch MR4s being scrapped and of course it is that scrapping that most people, certainly the mainstream media have focussed on.
That screens have been erected in a futile attempt to stop cameras observing the carnage only makes it more appealing to take a camera higher and show the broken metal.
But that is not really the point ... the point that matters, the point that ALWAYS matters and is almost always overlooked, is not something you can easily capture on film.
It is the broken hearts, the crushing of hopes, the squandering of talent, the throwing away of expertise in the men and women who made MPA work.
Because, no matter what the platform, no matter how sophisticated the sensors, what Nimrod did came down to people who had spent years and years out over the seas and slowly, slowly learning their art.
You can easily attach a price tag to the hardware, to the software but to have crews who between then have more than a century of MPA experience, is priceless.
That is the biggest lost. And by far the most difficult and time consuming to regain. Acquiring decades of experience, after all, requires decades.
There are no short cuts and saving money in 'peace time' always costs more lives in war time.