Biggus
Also an interesting thread by "toomanyairmiles"
These were 1940's coach built air frames, every single part required for the aircraft would have required designing and hand building for each airframe meaning the running costs would sky-rocket once in service.
The final space shuttle Endeavour would have cost 1.75 billion in today's money - the single serviceable MRA4 cost twice that.
Worse still the craft would come equipped with vastly out of date equipment specified in the 1990's which would soon require updating.
As for the other arguments about the economic benefits of building the aircraft here they appear to be at best slight. The combat computers were by Boeing, the electronic warfare equipment from Israel, weapons American, Rolls Royce engines built in Germany.
As for the special forces coming under threat this is a misnomer, Nimrod MR2s and the R1's (actually a spy plane) are presently being used in Afghanistan and will be unaffected by this decision.
As other commenters have pointed out India is presently buying the Boeing 737 P8 for 160 million each and these have better kit on-board - the real scandal here is that the project wasn't cancelled sooner. Serious questions remain about MOD procurement.