Good posts one and all. TOFO, I don't think we've met, but I can assure you the same sentiments regarding the N2000/RMPA/MRA4 programme were voiced very robustly by some very experienced RAF and civilian engineers in MoD(PE), both in London and then when we moved to AbbeyWood. I'd worked on Nimrod R from 90-93 and was certainly aware that all the aircraft were "different", a situation made far worse when the Chief Engineer's organisation decreed that Configuration Control should no longer be maintained. (To be fair, our own CDP was dead against it as well. I like to think Haddon-Cave was thinking of him when he had a swipe at submariners!). I was well used to such differences, and how to manage them, between production runs, but Nimrod was in another league altogether. For that reason alone, many experienced people simply did not believe MoD would countenance "RMPA" being a Nimrod derivative. It was madness.