The Neptunes certainly had the range, and the handling was excellent. I was told it was "almost like a fighter". APS 20 was very powerful, but the display was a bit rubbish when looking for small contacts. The early sonobuoy system using EER was very hit or miss, as was the Shackleton, with its slow data rate 1c system. I looked round one at Ballykelly, and remember the main spar took up a lot of space, and made it hard to move around. The galley was tiny and a bit of a slum. In ASW exercises from Ballykelly it did not have a lot of luck. Later improvements (AQA5?) may have helped, but the Shackletons had the edge as an ASW aircraft.