Originally Posted by
RedhillPhil
That's fantastic. Base your maritime fleet about as far away from the briny as you can get.
Just in case you hadn't noticed, they fly not float. The Nimrod fleet went to St Mawgan and Kinloss because that was where the real estate was at the time. The attraction of Gaydon was that it was in effect "green field" (long before that phrase was invented); the only permanent buildings were Air Traffic and the Command Power Plant Bay. Although the transit times to task areas were longer, the specified on task duration would still have been achievable. The cost saving in logistics from having a single central location were significant. In the end other factors prevailed and the Nimrod went to the extremities of the UK. Not forgetting of course that the Kinloss NDBs were stored at Macrahanish; but that's another story.
Let's face it, the P8 isn't going to be doing Stage 2 in D001 or the Moray Firth and the training regime will be considerably different from that on the Nimrod; MR1 or 2. Neither will it be sitting on a barrier somewhere south of the gaps waiting for a Yankee in transit to the the Westlant box. I don't know what the P8 profiles or operational concepts will be, but I am certain that they will be very different from those of the Nimrod. They won't be updating the Malin Head AGI in the transit either.
I operated the Nimrod from the North Pole to the South Pacific and most places in between. That would have been achieved from the centre of the country equally as well as from St Mawgan or Kinloss. My mention of Gaydon as a specific location was tongue in cheek, but I would challenge the necessity of the P8 having to be parked next to the sea; North or South.
YS