PA
As I understood it, it something to do with the aileron controls that had been placed at the back of the bomb bay. So if you opened the doors at speed and you took a big bird into it at speed then the control of ailerons could be lost? That was how it was explained to me at the time. Now you could probably still achieve some roll control with the secondary effect of rudder if your ailerons faailed but it might be a bit uncomfortable at 200ft!
As for Reaper. Please re-read my post. It clearly states Predator A that was flying operationally since the mid 90s. We had people on the Predator A program well before 2007 and our Reaper acquisition. If I recall correctly personnnel that went on to form 1115 Flt RAF were flying in 2003 (well before HERRICK started). i think we asked for a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of MQ-9 Reaper in 2006 having evaluated that it was worth the wait over MQ-1. There were also other capabilities able to provide line of sight full motion video in manned overland ISR aircraft in theatre should we wanted to pay for it.
Sorry, unwilling to PM names to you as that is up to the individuals to come forward in the debate if they want to. However, I clearly remember one of the individuals stating that there was a rush to get the MRA4 into service and one of the options was for it to not have a sonobuoy clearance - with the comment of "they'll sort that out later, don't worry"!
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, as we all know. But from my viewpoint the MRA4 cancellation was the right decision - just several years too late after wasting a lot of cash IMHO. As others have said, when the first batch of wings were made that didn't fit the refurbed MR2 fuselages (because each was different as they were made on wooden jigs many years ago) then that should have stopped the project then. However, I too hope that Father Christmas brings us a shiny new 'turn key' MPA soon.
I agree with TOFO - let's please move on. The MR2 had a long and great service record. Let's leave her to those memories and move on.
LJ