68 The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017
should be converted to replace it. XV249
was flown to Woodford for structural
conversion to a R1 which was completed
in December 1996 when it was delivered
to RAF Waddington for equipment fit.From the Falklands to
Afghanistan
After ‘Operation Corporate’, BAe Woodford
continued with Nimrod work and the final
MR2, XZ284, was delivered to Kinloss in
December 1985. Where Nimrods had
always been tasked in the maritime role
for which they had been designed, with
the end of the Cold War the role of MR2
was extended to encompass land-based
intelligence to ground forces.In the First Gulf War in 1990-91 five
MR2s were deployed to Seeb in Oman to
record all movements in the sea lanes and
assist coalition warships in their attacks on
enemy shipping. Only eight years later
the Nimrods were back in a role
supporting NATO forces in Serbia. For the
Second Gulf War in 2003 six Nimrod
MR2Ps received upgrades including a
forward looking infra-red turret under the
left wing to better support land forces
and the capability to carry Boz pods with
a towed radar decoy under each wing.
In Afghanistan (Operation Herrick), the
Nimrods were heavily involved in land
operations to identify enemy forces until
their withdrawal from use. In September2006 XV230 caught fire after refuelling in
flight over Kandahar, broke up and
crashed, killing 14 people. A Board of
Enquiry and an Independent Review
concluded that the aircraft was vulnerable
to catching fire during or after in-flight
refuelling and change of procedure was
immediately introduced. But only 14
months later, following flight refuelling,
the crew of XV235 were alerted to a
serious leak and it appeared that they
were saved by the procedural change.
In-flight refuelling of the Nimrod was then
suspended.
The 31 March 2010 saw the earlier
than planned withdrawal from service of
the Nimrod MR2. It had been intended
that they would remain in use until the
MRA4s arrived. Nimrod R1 operations
ceased only 15 months later in June 2011.
The withdrawal from service of the MR2
and R1s left a capability gap in signals
intelligence, maritime reconnaissance,
search and rescue roles.Nimrod AEW 3
Following the issue of an Operational
Requirement in 1975 for an AEW aircraft
to replace the aged Shackleton AEW2,
Marconi and Hawker Siddeley offered
the Nimrod. A version with rotating
scanner mounted above the fuselage
was examined, but the project was
finalised using two scanners, one
mounted in the extreme nose and one
in the tail, each sweeping 180º which
was synchronized to provide 360º
coverage. The forward radome was
shaped and positioned by the
constraints of aerial size, aerodynamics,
pilot visibility and by ground clearance.
The rear radome was mounted high on
the tail to give sufficient clearance at Dynamic view of
one of the three
Nimrod R1s fitted
out for electronic
surveillance. These
aircraft had a
plethora of aerials,
fewer windows and
no MAD boom at
the tail. (BAE SYSTEMS
North West Heritage)Nimrod MR2P with underwing Boz pod. Note the coaster aground on the rocks. (Avro Heritage)