UK MoD to spend further £200m on axed Nimrod project

[Fouga]

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12206044


The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed it will spend £200m on closing down the axed project to build nine new Nimrod spy planes.

The Nimrod MRA4 surveillance and reconnaissance planes were being built at BAE Systems sites in Stockport, Lancashire and East Yorkshire.

The project was ditched by the government in October's Defence Review.

The MoD said the money was to be used on finishing the planes, but will now be spent on ending its BAE contract.

A spokesperson said the sum included paying compensation to BAE.

The MoD and BAE signed a contract in 1996 to build 21 planes. This was reduced to 12 and later nine.

'Difficult' decision
All were due to be handed over to the RAF by 2012, but the project was scrapped in an effort to save money.

Axing the project means large job losses, as about 1,000 people were working on the project at Woodford, near Stockport, and another 200 at Brough, East Yorkshire.

A further 500 in Warton, Lancashire, were due to support the planes in service.

An spokesperson for the MoD said: "Ministers and service chiefs have made clear that the decision in October's Strategic Defence and Security Review not to bring the Nimrod MRA4 into service was difficult, but it will not be reversed and the dismantling process is under way.

"The severe financial pressures and the urgent need to bring the defence programme into balance meant we could not retain all existing programmes.

"We will continue joint maritime patrol activities with our allies and will ensure the integrity of UK waters by utilising a range of other military assets, including Type 23 frigates, Merlin anti-submarine warfare helicopters and Hercules C-130 aircraft."

[Silver]

IMHO, it's a baffling decision by the UK govt to leave their country with no dedicated MPA patrol aircraft?!

More info on Nimrods here....

http://www.northern-scot.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/10494/Nimrod_axe__could_cost_another__A31bn_.html

[Fouga]

Chopped up for scrap, Britain's £4 billion fleet of Nimrods
The Government has been accused of “gross vandalism” after industrial cutters have been moved onto an airfield to begin chopping up nearly £4 billion worth of the world’s most advanced reconnaissance aircraft.

By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent 7:00AM GMT 20 Jan 2011

On Monday private contractors hired by the Ministry of Defence will take chop off the wings of the first of nine Nimrod MRA4 aircraft.

To avoid government embarrassment each £400 million aircraft will be draped in tarpaulin and dragged to a remote corner of an airfield where they will be “brutally” dismantled.

Politicians and defence workers have accused the Government of acting too swiftly as the implications to national security have not been fully understood.

The termination of Nimrod was a surprise announcement in last October’s Strategic Defence and Security Review and the MoD is insistent their destruction will go ahead.

A last ditch effort attempt to reverse the decision to destroy them was made by BAE Systems union representatives yesterday who lobbied MPs.

Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, speaking after a meeting with the workers, said the Government was treating the Nimrods “like a second hand car”.

“This is all being done in a rush and the Government should press the pause button until they have made clear the full costs both to the taxpayer and the country’s security.”

The axing of Nimrod will lead to the loss of 1,600 jobs but the Government claims that it will save £2 billion in operating costs over the next decade.

Workers at the Woodford site in Cheshire where eight of the Nimrods are based said their loss would amounted almost to “a criminal act exposing UK Armed Forces”

“This will expose Britain’s homeland security,” said Keith French, chairman of Woodford Unite union branch. “People will die through the loss of this search and rescue capability.

“They are rushing this through because they will be extremely embarrassed if something happened and we still had Nimrod in the hangars. Removing them will no longer prolongs the argument for keeping them.”

The destruction of the Nimrods is also happening before the Commons Defence Committee has a chance examine the strategic implications of their loss.

Questions are also being asked why it has been chosen for the scrap heap as it will be Britain’s most modern 21st century aircraft with a wide range of capabilities as it can spy as well as drop bombs and missiles. It was also scheduled to play a key counter-terrorism role in the 2012 Olympics.

Angus Robertson, a SNP MP who has campaigned for the Nimrods, accused the Government of “gross vandalism”.

“I cannot think of a single example of nearly £4 billion worth of taxpayer’s property being sawn to pieces and sent to the landfill. It’s an unimaginable waste.”

However, MoD officials claim that more than £100 million would have to be spent making them airworthy after the single MRA4 delivered to the RAF was grounded over safety fears last year.

It predecessor, the MR2, was grounded under the Labour government in 2009 again following safety fears following an inquest and report in the mid-air explosion over Aghanistan in 2006 with the loss of 14 airmen.

A defence source said: “Labour’s legacy of a £38bn MoD blackhole meant that difficult decisions had to be taken and this programme was seriously delayed and over budget. We had to stop throwing good money after bad."

An MoD spokesman said: "“Ministers and Service Chiefs have made clear that the decision in October’s SDSR not to bring the Nimrod MRA4 into service was difficult, but it will not be reversed and the dismantling process is underway."