We'll pick the capability up again at some point (no doubt after some unfortunate event) but for now it's all about cash in the bank.
...and that is THE point that a great many critics are missing - NO YOU BLOODY WELL WON'T! By the time the RAF gets back into the game (if they ever do), as everyone will have left who knew how to do it, then they'll have to start from scratch again.
Once the capability has been killed off, it will take a decade before the sensor operators will begin to approach the level of the average maritime crew (in a number of fields, not just ASW)....that's a decade after they've exited the OCUs, where they'll spend 6 months on a course best described as 'the blind leading the partially sighted'.
Personally I think this is a mistake, but accept that I might be wrong - but please stop basing 'logical' arguments on the complete fallacy that all you need to regain a capability is the intent to do so.
As for whether we need all thes Nimrod threads - good lord no! By this stage, let's face it, the Nimrod is dead - you couldn't field a squadron now if you wanted to - so the only argument is whether you try to sustain some 'seedcorn' of "corporate knowledge" or not, and if so how many/what type? I suspect the 'seedcorn' idea will not take into account the degradation of skills over time that has already set in, and will focus on too few individuals... a bit like just saving the GSU, and I can't be the only person who remembers the day they taxied past and had to shut down as they'd left the APU running....
Caz - 5 squadrons, (adopts Monty Python* 'Yorkshiremen sketch' voice...."Luxury!")
Dave
(*It was actually on "(at last it's) The 1948 Light Show" originally - shock horror, Monty P nicked one of their most famous sketches! Admittedly most of the 1948 lot went on to form Python...)