By DaveJb:
"Give it to the navy - as soon as ANYONE starts trying to 'do' ASW etc they'll discover the crews were the important part of the capability, not the platform".
I assume that by this Dave, you consider that the Navy can't do the job? Hmmm, no one doubts the professional competence of the Nimrod crews but I think you'll find the RN has always done a fair amount of ASW (& ASuW etc). Some of it from the air & some from the surface & sub surface. As far as I am aware the science (art?) of ASW (and ASuW) does not change just because you happen to be flying. The RN has Sonar, radar, EW, Comms specialists; some of whom have airborne experience. They are even pretty good at the picture compilation & integration & "running the battle".
If ever the UK gets another LRMP aircraft I wouldn't recommend that the capability was either RN or RAF particularly but a Joint Force Maritime capability would seem to be the way forward, with each service providing the specialists from the pool of experts in its core competency areas.
If the RAF continue to have and train ASW personnel then that's great but I expect that the decison to bin Nimrod will mean that the RAFs ASW & ASuW pipeline will (has?) closed down. In contrast the RN will always be training ASW & ASuW personnel, because that's what it does, and some of those people will be able to do the job at 400 knots.