Fergineer, XV277
Fergineer: Yes MZ is larger than several European nations but it has a small population.
However, if the RAF were to have as many maritime patrol aricraft per capita as the RNZAF then they would have needed a fleet of around 85 Nimrods!
XV277: My remarks about the Minister of Defence applied to the New Zealand office holder, not his counterpart in Whitehall!
While I am here, three observations on this thread — getting to the facts and the length of the Nimrod's heritage.
First, A lot of people still rely on the general media and the general media both in NZ and the UK is to factual news as a length of seaweed is to weather forecasting.
Most of the media would not know their Nimrod from their AWACS E-3.
They are paid to find sensation ... the truth is a distant objective.
Second, a number of people have looked askance at the long list of things 'wrong' with Nimrod.
This is like finding bacteria on a kitchen table ... the table can be made clean.
Things marked as faulty get fixed, even when there are hundreds of them.
The critical point is less that there were so many faults found but rather that they were found because once found they would be fixed
And, not least some have used the length of the hapless Nimrod's heritage to condemn it.
In a month or two the B-52's lineage will be 59 years long ... obviously it is a hopelessly old aeroplane.