All the problems with MRA4 lie in the lap of MESSY BEAST.
The bright young things at Farnborough decided to use the Mk2 airframes for MRA4. Anyone who knows anything about the Nimrod will tell you that they are all hand built. The fuselage frames can be upto 4" different from airframe to airframe. Next came the brainwave of using two different CAD systems to design the wing and equip the fuselage, both systems have great difficulty 'talking' to each other.
The wing re-design was forced on them because the BWM/RR engines wouldn't fit in the old wing, which had been stretched to the limit to get the Spey's in. The re-deisgn by the wing experts produced a new wing that weighed a couple of tons more than the original. As for the fuselage, as early as 1998 MESSY BEAST realised they had big problems installing the systems, because all the airframes differed in some way, one of them was actually bent. Then comes the really clever bit marrying the wing to the fuselage, a fuselage attachment designed on CATIA and a wing designed on CADDS5 (see above). Not only that but because they had used one fuselage for the datum points, and the first fuselage was different then 'hey presto' they wont mate!
The work of assembling the Nimrod went to FR Aviation who realised very quickly they where out of there depth. Sollution ship it to Woodford, which if the empty suits at Farnborough had listened to them in the first place most of what has gone wrong could have been avoided. MESSY BEAST should have asked the design teams in Manchester most of whom new the Nimrod inside out, but what do they know, Warton are the gods of military aircraft.
The MRA4 is AEW Nimrod all over again, only this time the systems work but the airframe doesn't. The only real shame is the sh!t will stick on Woodford and Prestwick and the gods in Preston will live to ruin another project.
I've allways thought that Wartons old title of Military Aircraft Division (MAD), very appropriate.
0.02 Euros supplied.