I still think a cost effective future compromise could be obtained with a smaller aircraft that just covers SAR and basic ASUW.
The rest of the tasks are like I earlier stated just insurance against the extremely unlikely that we can't afford.
The Dutch seem to be managing.
There has been much scaremongering about how this decision will come back to bite us in the future, if you believe so then lets here some specifics because all the time we had the nimrod it didn't drop anything in anger, even the Vulcan managed that at the end of it's life!
And I am fully aware of the other tasks it carried out and was never scared of what might of been had they not been around.
It's no longer a great secret of their involvement against drugs and to be honest the money it cost might have been better spent on the Police.