Chopped up for scrap, Britain's £4 billion fleet of Nimrods

drunkenmaster said:
War is a business, 1st world countries profit from wars and prop up economies on defence spending, none of that means any of it is required.

What would actually be great, or hilarious maybe, would be for Conservatives to just call for public voting, we spend 800billion a year, but can only afford 600 billion spending, you decide what we cut to get spending under control.

1/ heathcare, 2/ police 3/ reconnaissance planes we've lived without before hand and really don't NEED for anything that cost billions a year to run 4/benefits

unfortunately 4/benefits the vote wouldn't get a majority due to the number of people on benefits, and the fact that getting rid of them would leave 1/10th of the population homeless and starving.
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Yea then ten years down the line, government scream for conscription or the need for a military industry that no long exists. Nimrod has no doubt seen it's day and needs replaced but the fundng of a defence industry is in the long term interest of the UK.

5/ Government

That what I would vote for.
 
sanaxe1 said:
Why don't we just have them in storage incase we really need them in the future.
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The government really wants rid of them, scrapping these things leave us with a very very big capability gap and as long as they exist people will be calling for them to be finished, if they are scraped the argument no matter how right it is becomes irrelevant.
 
sanaxe1 said:
Why don't we just have them in storage incase we really need them in the future.
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The storage and continued maintenance costs would be too high. Tbh we are suffering from having an RAF that has kept aircraft for too long and remodded.

Wasting money on 40 year old Hercules that should have been retired and bought new ones after the falkland war. The same with the Tristar. It should have been cut up in the 90's and replaced instead of throwing money at them for years.
 
dannyjo22 said:
The storage and continued maintenance costs would be too high. Tbh we are suffering from having an RAF that has kept aircraft for too long and remodded.
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Perhaps, but possibly far more to the point is an RAF that is constantly fighting the last war, as is often the want of the British armed forces.

We dont need 270 Eurofighter high performance air-superiority jets, and cant afford them. We've had to ditch the Nimrods to keep the fighter-jocks happy, despite the RAF not having shot down an enemy combatant in the air since 1945.

The soviets arent invading, this isnt 1971, but the RAF is still geared to fighting waves of incoming Red Air Force fighters... shame really.
 
simulatorman said:
If it had been left to them it would cost even more.

Should have been scrapped a while back. Another example of the cash cow the MOD has become for the nudge nudge wink wink say no more British defence industry. The old boy network appears to set up huge defence contracts without any external vetting. They are just then allowed to go on even if it looks like they will fail. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last.
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so you have never had anything to do with the defence industry then.

in large specialist industries it is very important to work very closely with the customer, it's not like buying a washing machine you know.
 
I like the wording that they use; BRUTALLY dismantled.

I see images of men with angry faces, grimacing whilst turning screwdrivers really quickly.
 
No but I've worked with people who used to build them and I've seen them being dismantled.

My post was said in jest in case you wondered....

That was an answer^.
 
matt_fsr said:
We dont need 270 Eurofighter high performance air-superiority jets, and cant afford them. We've had to ditch the Nimrods to keep the fighter-jocks happy, despite the RAF not having shot down an enemy combatant in the air since 1945.
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Typhoon is a multi-role aircraft not just a fighter as it's LGB & dumb bomb cert'd and is currently doing IPGB trials (Paveway IV). Within a few years it'll be doing Afghan (if we're still there) with the advantages that it can carry more, faster and further than the Tornado GR4 AND on top of that it can Still shoot other planes down if req'd (unlike anything else in the RAF inventory now the F3 is being scrapped).

We need it (unless the near sighted cost-cutters at the MOD get their way and scrap 3/4's of them that we've already bought.)
 
ianh said:
Typhoon is a multi-role aircraft not just a fighter as it's LGB & dumb bomb cert'd and is currently doing IPGB trials (Paveway IV). Within a few years it'll be doing Afghan (if we're still there) with the advantages that it can carry more, faster and further than the Tornado GR4 AND on top of that it can Still shoot other planes down if req'd (unlike anything else in the RAF inventory now the F3 is being scrapped).

We need it (unless the near sighted cost-cutters at the MOD get their way and scrap 3/4's of them that we've already bought.)
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Looks like a few will be sold off...

The Guardian newspaper reports that the Royal Air Force is to lose up to 55 of its early ‘Tranche 1’ Eurofighter Typhoons by 2015 in further cost-cutting measures.

Introduced in 2005, the early aircraft, mainly two-seaters, will be retired as it will be “too expensive” to upgrade them to the latest Tranche 3 standard, says the report. The RAF will be left with a fleet numbering around 100 aircraft by the middle of the decade. Total planned Typhoon acquisition for all variants, Tranches 1 to 3A, currently stands at 160 aircraft. Deliveries to date total 60 aircraft, the majority of which are based at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

A spokesperson for the RAF has confirmed that the aircraft will be offered for sale rather than scrapped.
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Alex_6n2 said:
It's a shame really. I'd be my house that they end up spending more money on the purchase/acquisition/training and maintenance on the replacements.
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They might well end up doing that, or they might just not get a proper replacement, so it will be cheaper.

But I can't help wondering if scrapping them now is a bit of a waste - maybe it was a bad project to start with, but now 4bn has been spent, it just seems like a bit of a waste tbh. After all, 200m per year isn't that much... but then again, if they will provide no useful service at all then it would be a waste anyway...
 
Sticking with the UK tradition of bumming up to the yanks it's looking like we will be renting/buying 4 of these hunks of junk to fill the space of the Nimrod especially the R1. God help us...

Boeing Rc-135 in service since 1961 and regarded as being far less capable than the MR2 let alone MRA4..

rc-135_cobra_ball_aircraft_parked_at_offutt.jpg
 
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I think we should look at this awesome *NEW* design airplane from Japan. New ASW jet! What a great machine!

Kawasaki P1

Im sure our MOD boffins can bling it up with advanced radar and other gizmos. Gimme 4 fans anyday if Im gonna be tooling around hunting subs and such.
 
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The MRA4's??? Seriously??? Even after all that time and money when they're practically finished they decided to canx them? :( I liked the idea of us using our own equipment too :/
 
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