The Nimrod program should never have been started to begin with. The right decision almost 2 decades too late.


An airframe based on a 1st generation jet airliner, with inherent issues being carried forward over 50 years for low speed, low level patrolling.

WHAT THE F**K WERE THEY THINKING?!?!

Even a 1st or 2nd year uni engineering student could see that is a bad idea.


They would have been much safer having the necessary kit modular and usable within the A330 MRTT from the start. Buy more A330s, force the unit price down, and have a larger and more flexible force as a result.

Flexibility. Flexibility. Flexibility. The key to all military programs*, and one continually overlooked by all decision makers in the MoD.


*with the exception of the F-35 which makes critical performance sacrifices to achieve limited flexibility of almost no usefulness.

Originally posted by kilcoo316
The Nimrod program should never have been started to begin with. The right decision almost 2 decades too late.

True, but this is increasingly the norm for most large scale military programs, a, la the F-22, JSF, both largely driven by 20 year old cold war thinking with the F-22 started about that long ago. Sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't.

An airframe based on a 1st generation jet airliner, with inherent issues being carried forward over 50 years for low speed, low level patrolling.

WHAT THE F**K WERE THEY THINKING?!?!

Even a 1st or 2nd year uni engineering student could see that is a bad idea.

But the same goes for the P-8A, a 45+ year old design airliner designed to fly at high subsonic speed at high altitude (and the P-3 family is the same except it is excellent for low speed, low altitude work). Neither the MRA4 or P-8A however could be considered anything but distant cousins of their forebears though. Both airframes have had issues but both have been improved with new engines, wings, systems etc. The difference between them is Boeing (so far) seems to have got it right with a fairly smooth program.

They would have been much safer having the necessary kit modular and usable within the A330 MRTT from the start. Buy more A330s, force the unit price down, and have a larger and more flexible force as a result.

Hmmm... now THAT is an interesting idea. You would need to ensure you had enough airframes to cover both roles properly, and there may be a nagging question about whether putting two complex roles into one airframe would make for an overly complicated and potentially unreliable system. It might also make crew training a little tricky as you would need the crews to be crossed trained and both those roles are notoriously specialized. Still an idea worth looking at however.

LEE.

Use A330s for tankers, AWACS and surveillance. One frame of planes which is going to have lots of frames available when the 787 and A350 start to operate.

Stop buying Eurofighters just like the US did with the F22, that was a cold war plane which is not needed anymore. Keep the ones you have but stop ordering more. Split BEA into different companies so there isn't just one who gets the contracts and therefore can spend an eternity building things.

Start a new aerospace industry with realistic goals, focus on a few key areas which can serve the country better. Maybe its the unmanned way or not but build on a strength and push forward.