I remember passing paper messages to the Nav because the AMRICS (comms) had
ground to a halt.
AMRICS (Automatic Mission Radio and Intercomm Communications System ISTR - or was it "Airborne") was not that bad when I was with the JTU (I qualified as Op1 Comms just before the decision to can and so used it quite a bit). The problem with AMRICS was that you could not monitor more than one tactical intercom net without joining them all together! It was also very easy to run out of radios given that any operator could grab one without telling other crew members leading to loss of priority comms.
It would have been a comms nightmare had we gone down the Nimrod route (especially for us deaf ex-shack bods).
This was typical of the Nimrod AEW concept.... the mission system was packed with automatic features that were immature at the time, inflexible, and often did not work correctly (or in a timely manner). The result was that the operators very quickly lost confidence in the entire mission system. Meanwhile, the E-3, that used additional manpower on the aircraft rather than underpowered computers, possessed a much more satisfactory mature and usable system. The E-3 still has several automatic systems on board, but the human (when trained) system was much more accurate and therefore tactically astute. I often used the analagy of the longbow and the crossbow. Scientists/arms manufacturers love the crossbow with its fancy pulleys and levers and theoretical greater hitting power - however when you were up to your a*se in charging French cavalry then the simpler longbow was a much more effective weapons system.