HAWKER SIDDELEY NIMROD 100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE
PATROLLERS AND AIRLIFTERS RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION 81hour standby to search for missing
airmen, seamen, coastal walkers or
anybody in distress.
UPGRADED
By 1975 it had been decided that
Nimrod needed an upgrade and the
first of the MR.2 standard (XV236)
flew on February 13, 1979. The
improvement was mostly to the
navigation and attack systems and
included Searchwater radar, and
a fifty-fold increase in computing
power compared to the MR.1.
The first Nimrods (XV244 and
XV258) to take part in Operation
Corporate (the code name given
to the British military campaign in
the Falklands) arrived at Ascension
Island on April 6, 1982 and two
MR.2s landed a week later.
It soon became obvious that even
the Nimrod’s impressive range
was insufficient in the vast South
Atlantic, and the lack of air-to-air
refuelling capability would severely
restrict the type’s operability. As
such, a ‘Heath Robinson’ conversion
involved XV229 being used as the
prototype MR.2P (P for Probe);
an in-flight refuelling boom was
mounted on the upper forward
fuselage, and attached to standard
fuel bowser hoses routed via the
cockpit escape hatch, under the
floor beneath the crew seats and
connected to the main fuel tanks
close to the galley, in the rear of
the fuselage.RECCE NIMROD
The aircraft’s abilities were not lost
on the reconnaissance world, and in
1974 three Nimrod R.1 ‘spy-planes’
replaced the Comets with
51 Squadron.
The R.1 variant had no MAD
boom. It did, however, have many
sensors in a stubby tailcone and
beneath the wings. The fuselage
housed listening devices and other
top-secret equipment.
In 1977, Nimrod was also chosen
to fulfil the RAF’s requirement for
an airborne early warning (AEW)
aircraft to replace the Shackleton
AEW.2. British Aerospace was to
convert 11 Nimrods to AEW.3
format, with GEC Marconi radars
in bulbous nose and tail fairings.
But the project was plagued by cost
over-runs and computer problems,
and the AEW.3 was cancelled
in December 1986. The RAF
eventually received the Boeing E-3
Sentry instead.The Nimrod MR.2P and R.1
would serve in the First Gulf War,
spotting enemy ships and carrying
out SAR duties – as well as flying
missions over Bosnia, in the Second
Gulf War and over Afghanistan.
However, as early as 1993 the first
moves were made in sourcing a
Nimrod replacement and in 1996
a fleet of 21 Nimrod 2000s (later
dubbed MRA.4) airframes were
ordered. The project suffered
delays, disputes and cost increases
and the order was cut to just
nine aircraft by the time the first
production example flew on
September 10, 2009.CANCELLATION
By this time the Nimrod had
already suffered its darkest day.
On September 2, 2006, MR.2
XV230 exploded in mid-air over
Afghanistan, killing all 14 crew.
The Board of Inquiry into the loss
of XV230 blamed problems with
the improvised refuelling system
dating back to the Falklands, and an
investigation led to the MR.2 fleet
being phased out early in 2010. The
MRA.4 project was also cancelled
later that year.
Although they had originally been
due to retire in March 2011, the
small fleet of Nimrod R.1s soldiered
on for a few months for Operation
Ellamy over Libya. The last example
was retired on June 28, 2011,
closing more than 40 years of
‘Mighty Hunter ops’.The Nimrod MR.2P and R.1
would serve in the First Gulf War,Above
A fi sheye view of a
Nimrod cockpit during
a pilot training sortie.
CROWN COPYRIGHTBelow left
The aircraft’s
large weapons
bay could carry a
variety of nuclear
and conventional
weapons including
torpedoes, depth
charges and bombs.
During the Falklands
confl ict, Nimrods
were converted to
carry (and launch)
the AIM-9 Sidewinder
air-to-air missile for
self-defence.“Famed for its anti-submarine warfare role, Nimrod
equally earned its ‘Mighty Hunter’ nickname during
search and rescue”