programme continued, these problems
would have been ironed out. The Nimrod
AEW3s were cannibalised for spares,
stored and then scrapped. After a
considerable expense on the AEW3s the
RAF was now forced to purchase the
Boeing E3A AWACS. There was a five year
wait for delivery from the USA, so the
Shackletons AEW2s remained in use until
July 1991.Nimrod MRA4
In 1993 the MoD issued a requirement
for a Maritime Patrol Aircraft to replace
Nimrod MR2. At that time the RAF had 24
Nimrods in service, plus two reserves and
the expectation was that 25 new aircraft
would be ordered to replace these.
Surprisingly the RAF’s three Nimrod R1s
were not included in this replacement
programme. The maiden flight
of Nimrod MRA4
PA1 ZJ516 on 26
August 2004 from
Woodford to
Warton. Photo
taken from
BAE-owned Pilatus
PC-9 ZG969.
(BAE SYSTEMS North
West Heritage)70 The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017
BAE’s bid for the contract was based
on a refurbished Nimrod MR2 branded as
Nimrod 2000. The MoD believed using
extensively refurbished aircraft was the
cheaper option, although BAE would
probably have preferred to design a
completely new aircraft. Just like BAE all
the other bidders were offering revamps
of existing aircraft; Lockheed Martin had
its Orion2000, Lockheed Tactical Systems
UK another Orion rebuild while Breguet
proposed a version of the Atlantic.
Unsurprisingly BAE won the £2.4bn
contract to supply 21 new aircraft in
December 1996. The RAF declared that
the aircraft would be known as the
Nimrod Maritime Reconnaissance and
Attack (MRA) Mark 4.
BAE’s plan was to employ refurbished
Nimrod MR2 fuselages mated to a new
centre section, a new larger wing,undercarriage, pressure floor and entirely
new systems. The new wing, with 12ft
more span and comprising a 23%
greater area than the old MR2 wing, had
four underwing hardpoints to allow the
carriage of a variety of weapons
including Harpoon, ASRAAM, Maverick,
Sidewinder and Storm Shadow, giving
the aircraft an impressive offensive
capability.
The MRA4 was re-engined with four
15,500lb-thrust BMW Rolls-Royce BR710
turbofans which consumed 30% less
fuel than the MR2’s Speys and produced
25% more thrust, but the BR710’s
diameter was almost 50% greater and
introduced large structural changes to
the inboard wing to accommodate the
four new engines. The fuselage
remained almost unchanged, except for
a ram-air turbine in a teardrop fairing ZJ516 off the
starboard wing of
the third MRA4
ZJ517 in November- The left side
fuselage blister
contained a Ram-Air
Turbine.
(BAE SYSTEMS North
West Heritage)