And of course the crews will all come fully trained (and motivated), and the weapons/SAR kit/Buoys will all be cleared for release as soon as the role change has been applied and the hours for role currency training will be available in between Op hours etc etc etc.
That's the spirit! Especially as everything else we've ever bought has come with Instant Crew Qualification & Role Clearances.
Working on the assumption that burying a couple of Nimrods in the Pet Cemetary in the hope they'll rise from the dead probably isn't going to work, how about trying to find a solution with what we have actually got? How about actually hard-modifying a few Hercs to be role specfic LRMP/LRSAR? We're scrapping a few
Js early (mental, obviously) so perhaps that could be refitted as dedicated maritime assets. They're obviously never going hunt down and sink Russian subs but they'd be pretty good for long range SAR/Patrol and for lobbing stuff out the back of.
The Herc is a very versatile and capable platform as the Americans repeatedly demonstrate (105mm guns, Hellfires, TV stations, rescue platforms, jammers etc etc). The RAF could do a lot more with its C130s if it wasn't quite so scared of anything even vaguely out of the ordinary