Origins In 1990, the UK abandoned options for avionics, sensors and tactical system upgrades of the MR2. BAe evaluated several different engines to power the Nimrod 2000, such as the
Rolls-Royce Tay turbofan, the
Pratt & Whitney JT8D-200 turbofan, and the
General Electric CF34 turbofan, before settling upon the Rolls-Royce
BR710 engine. In 1995, it was claimed that the Nimrod MR2 airframes were of a sufficient condition in that they could readily serve through the intended 25-year service life and that "retained airframe items are low risk". In March 1996, BAe promoted the option of establishing a production line to manufacture new-build Nimrod aircraft as an alternative to the refurbishment of existing airframes, which was reportedly motivated by service concerns regarding attrition rates of the existing aircraft. It was also announced that preliminary talks had been conducted with the
South African Air Force on the topic of the Nimrod 2000. BAe argued that the Nimrod 2000's selection would give it entry to the global maritime patrol aircraft market. Loral stated that it believed that its bid to refurbish stored P-3s was the most cost-effective submission; however, there was public controversy over whether Loral possessed the necessary technical information on the airframe, claims which Loral refuted.
Selection In June 1996, the MoD's Equipment Approvals Committee recommended that the Nimrod 2000 bid be selected to meet the RAF's requirement. In July 1996, in response to the committee's decision, Lockheed Martin announced that it had reduced the cost of its Orion 2000 submission by 15 per cent amid a series of last-minute discussions held between Lockheed Martin President
Norman R. Augustine, General Electric Company President
Lord Weinstock,
Secretary of State for Defence Michael Portillo and
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine, seeking a 90-day interval to fully revise their bid. In July 1996, it was announced that the £2 billion contract had been awarded to British Aerospace to produce the Nimrod 2000. By the time of formal contract award in December the aircraft had received the
designation Nimrod MRA4. The Nimrod MRA4 was to be produced as essentially a new aircraft. Significant changes were involved in the remanufacturing process, including the installation of BR710 turbofan engines, the adoption of a larger and more efficient wing with 23% greater surface area, various new missions systems and avionics, and an extensively refurbished fuselage. Much larger air intakes were required on the MRA4 in order to provide the necessary airflow requirements imposed by the BR710 engine, which is significantly greater than that of the Spey 250 that had powered the original Nimrod variants. BAe also teamed up with
Boeing to provide the Nimrod MRA4's mission systems, making use of the latter's work on mooted patrol aircraft systems for the P-3 and
Boeing 737. The
Aircraft Synthetic Training Aids (ASTA) provided by
Thales Training & Simulation was an electronic training suite to allow the training of crew members to transfer from active MRA4 aircraft to ground-based training systems; this change was made to increase the availability of the aircraft for operational missions and allow for more intensive training exercises.
Delays and development problems The original scheduled date of entry into service for the MRA4 was April 2003; however, development proved far more protracted than anticipated. Early on, an independent company,
Flight Refuelling Ltd., had been contracted to undertake the conversions to MRA4 standard, however BAE discovered that the Nimrod airframes supplied by the RAF were not built to a common standard and this considerably complicated the refurbishment process. The task of converting the existing airframes was transferred in-house to BAE Systems
Woodford. The BAE team at Woodford then found that the new wing was flawed, which resulted in the project being put on hold while another wing design was developed. On 19 February 2003, BAE took a charge of £500 million against the MRA4 contract. The company had previously taken a £300 million "loss charge" in 2000, which was expected to cover "all the costs of completion of the current contract". The contract was renegotiated for the second time in 2002, where the aircraft requirement was reduced from 21 to 18. Announcing plans for the future of the British military on 21 July 2004, the Defence Secretary
Geoff Hoon detailed plans to reduce the upgrade programme to cover only 16 MRA4 aircraft, and suggested that an eventual fleet of 12 might suffice. PA01, the first development MRA4, completed its maiden flight on 26 August 2004. This was followed by PA02's first flight in December 2004 which was used to test elements of the mission system and the air vehicle. BAE Systems received a contract worth £1.1 billion for 12 MRA4s on 18 July 2006; three were to be development aircraft and nine more converted to production standard. The Nimrod MRA4 successfully released the
Sting Ray torpedo for the first time on 30 July 2007. Further disputes over cost meant that the number of MRA4s to be delivered was further reduced to nine by Spring 2008. At the time of the flight, each MRA4 was to cost at least £400 million. The Ministry of Defence announced in December 2009 that the introduction of the MRA4 would be delayed until 2012 as part of defence spending cuts. In March 2010, the first production Nimrod MRA4 was delivered to the RAF for acceptance testing; in August 2010, the RAF launched its instructor training course using the type. The MRA4 fleet was expected to attain
initial operational capability in October 2012. The Nimrod MRA4 was planned to operate out from its main base at
RAF Kinloss, Scotland.
Cancellation In the 2010
Strategic Defence and Security Review of the Armed Forces, the UK government announced the cancellation of the MRA4 on 19 October 2010 and consequently that RAF Kinloss, the intended base for the Nimrod fleet, would be closed. On 24 November 2010, 382 sub-contract workers previously working on the MRA4 were laid off at BAE Systems
Warton and Woodford. After the airframes were stripped of electronic equipment, the remaining fuselages were scrapped at BAE Systems Woodford beginning on 26 January 2011. Although the process was conducted behind screens intended to hide the process from the media, the
BBC flew a helicopter over Woodford and broadcast footage of the scrapping in progress. Although late and over-budget the decision to cancel the MRA4 was controversial as the remaining airframes had all been near completion.), Russian submarines have been able to travel past the UK in international waters, but they could not be tracked because of the lack of suitable aircraft. In November and early December 2014 four maritime patrol aircraft operated by France, Canada and the United States were based at
RAF Lossiemouth to attempt to locate a Russian submarine which had been spotted in British territorial waters off west Scotland. The aircraft would also have been used in the civilian
search and rescue role; the Nimrod MR2 had often been used in this role. In this respect the Strategic Defence and Security Review stated that the UK "will depend on other maritime assets to contribute to the tasks previously planned for [the Nimrod MRA4]". Following the cancellation, the Defence Secretary
Liam Fox used the Nimrod MRA4 procurement as an example of the worst of MOD procurement performance: "The idea that we ever allow ourselves into a position where something that was originally Nimrod 2000 – where we ordered [21] was reduced to nine, spent £3.8bn and we still weren't close to getting the capability – is not to happen again." Nevertheless, six ex-defence chiefs publicly criticised the decision to scrap the Nimrods in January 2011 and the
Public Accounts Committee concluded in February 2012 that the decision had been made without a proper understanding of the cost implications and had wasted £3.4bn. In January 2011, it was reported by the
Financial Times that when the decision was taken to scrap the aircraft, "[The MRA4] was still riddled with flaws.... Safety tests conducted [in 2010] found there were still 'several hundred design non-compliances' with the aircraft. It was unclear, for example, whether its bomb bay doors functioned properly, whether its landing gear worked and, most worryingly, whether its fuel pipe was safe." According to
Air Forces Monthly magazine, "significant aerodynamic issues and associated flying control concerns in certain regimes of flight meant that it was grounded at the time of cancellation and may not have been signed over as safe by the Military Aviation Authority." The magazine also stated that the reason for the cancellation was that the RAF and Navy placed a higher priority on fast jets and frigates than on maritime patrol.
Replacement Reports in mid-2011 suggested that a purchase of up to five
P-8 Poseidons was under consideration, while in January 2015 it was reported that attempts had been made to sell the
Kawasaki P-1 as another possible replacement. In November 2015, as part of the
Strategic Defence and Security Review, the
Ministry of Defence announced the procurement of nine P-8 Poseidons, which will undertake the range of tasks that were undertaken by the Nimrod MR.2 and intended for the MRA.4. The RAF took delivery of its first Poseidon MRA1 in Seattle in October 2019 and the aircraft arrived in the UK in February 2020. ==Specifications (MRA4)==