Warning from History

摘要

What a shame the good name of the Nimrod, one of Britain's great post-war military aircraft, has so often been traduced. The MR1s and MR2s spent tens of thousands of hours patrolling the worlds oceans, the Rls likewise gathering vital electronic intelligence. They all served splendidly in the Falklands and the Gulf. Yet its the low points that somehow come most readily to mind. Some have been truly tragic: the 1995 Toronto display accident that killed seven, and the 2006 explosion over Afghanistan, which caused 14 lost lives and seemed emblematic of an overstretched RAF forced to rely on tired equipment. But there have been procurement disasters, too. The recent MRA4 programme was undoubtedly scandalous, but the Nimrod already had form in that regard.