PHOTOS/VIDEO: First Nimrod MRA.4s are now wrecked...

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-11653729

Nimrod aircraft 'could become scrap metal'

Nine Nimrod MRA4 were being built at BAE Systems in Woodford, Cheshire

Nine multi-million pound Nimrod aircraft could be turned into scrap metal, BAE Systems unions have claimed.

David Cameron announced that the replacement Nimrod MRA4 surveillance and reconnaissance planes project would be scrapped in the Defence Review.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was in discussions with BAE Systems about the future of the aircraft.

One has already been built and eight others were being worked on at the firm's plant in Woodford, Cheshire.

The prime minister said the project had cost more than £3bn.

Kevin French, Unite chairman at the site, said: "It looks like they are going to cut them up.

'Chop wings off'

"They will probably bring in a big company to crush them and cut them up, chop their wings off. It will be as crude as that.

"It will be the most expensive scrap metal they will have ever paid for.

"It is such a waste of money - why would you pay almost £4bn and not put the planes into service?"

A spokeswoman for the MoD said: "We intend to discuss the way ahead with industry but we can not say how the MRA4 will be disposed of at this point."

BAE staff are continuing to work as normal The MoD and BAE signed a contract in 1996 to build 21 planes. This was reduced to 12 and later nine.

Mr French said one of the "Spy in the Sky" planes had been completed. Five others are in the late stages of production.

All were due to be handed over to the RAF by 2012.

About 1,000 people are working on the project at Woodford and another 200 at Brough, East Yorkshire.

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

Staff at Woodford are being asked to work as normal, with many feeling they are "in limbo", Mr French said.

A BAE spokesman said: "We are now working through the detailed programme implications of the changes... with the MoD.

"Until we've had the time to do so, we will not be in a position to confirm any more details regarding individual sites or programmes."

Mr French said staff would be "heartbroken" to see the aircraft broken up.

'Big hole'

"When you see it fly you are proud - proud of what you've helped build and how it can defend the UK," he said.

He said scrapping the planes would leave a "big hole" in the UK's defences.

Local MP Mark Hunter said he had spoken to the defence secretary about the site and was told the MoD would be "looking to stop [production] as soon as possible".

Mr Hunter said he was told the planes could not be sold as there was a "limited market" for such aircraft.

"They might end up being scrapped," he said.

[Le Addeur noir]

This airplane has less than scrap value as it has never worked to specification.

It should have never been built.

The initial Nimrods were judged to have never been airworthy after one exploded over Afghanistan in 2006.

The main role of the Nimrod-to provide jobs and sustainment to an inefficient and corrupt aerospace manufacturer to boost support for the then ruling political Party in Britain.The ultimate pork-barrel project.

An earleir version of the Nimrod,the aborted Nimrod AEW.3 after some one billion Pounds had been wasted on it(at 1985 prices).

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... scrap.html

£3.6 billion Nimrods dismantled for scrap

Nine Nimrod surveillance aircraft, which cost taxpayers £3.6 billion, will be dismantled and scrapped without ever having flown in their new configuration.

By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent 2:34PM GMT 09 Dec 2010

The MRA4 planes, only one of which has ever left the ground in its new guise, will be stripped of their equipment and abandoned following Coalition defence cuts.

The decision led to the Nimrods being branded “the world's most expensive pile of scrap metal".

Hundreds of jobs could also be lost, according to BAE Systems, which built the Nimrods.

The Strategic Defence and Security Review in October terminated the £3.6 billion order for Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft.

Other aircraft retired in the defence review – including Harrier jump jets – could be sold intact to foreign countries to recoup some money.

But the MoD has decided that simply scrapping the "new" Nimrods is the “most cost effective option”.

BAE on Thursday said it had received a formal “contract termination” notice from the MoD, and halted work on the Nimrods at Woodford, Cheshire.

Nimrods, which fly/flew from RAF Kinloss in Scotland, are equipped with long-range surveillance equipment for eavesdropping on communications and detecting movement.

The aircraft can provide vital support for Vanguard submarines carrying Trident nuclear missiles, by detecting Russian hunter-killer subs trying to follow them.

Without the Nimrods, Britain is likely to ask the US and France to provide such anti-submarine warfare capabilities in future.

Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the head of the Royal Navy has said he is “very uncomfortable” about the situation.

The “disposal” of the new Nimrods was confirmed in a letter from Peter Luff, the defence procurement minister, to Angus Robertson, the Scottish National Party MP who represents Kinloss.

The minister said: “I have considered a range of option for the disposal of the Nimrod MRA4 fleet and concluded that the most cost effective option is for the nine aircraft to be disposed of,
following recovery of equipment and systems that can be used elsewhere.

“We estimate that around £2 billion will be saved over the next 10 years by not bringing the aircraft into service.”

BAE confirmed that its staff at Woodford have begun removing electronics and other systems from the Nimrods as a preparation for the MoD’s final disposal of the empty airframes.

Mr Robertson said: “The scrapping of the Nimrod fleet is total folly and a record breaking waste of taxpayer money.

Not only are billions of pounds being wasted but there is now a massive military capability gap. These capable aircraft could and should be in service not being cut up for scrap.”

Bernie Hamilton of the Unite trade union, which represents workers at BAE’s Woodford site, said that the MoD decision on Nimrod would

“The airframes will either be parked and left to rust or they will be cut up and sold for scrap.

It’s a substantial waste of UK taxpayers’ money.”

http://www.key.aero/view_news.asp?ID=28 ... n=military

SDSR hits UK jobs

BAE Systems has announced a round of job losses following the UK Government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Gary Parsons - 9-Dec-2010

December 9: UK aerospace giant BAE Systems has announced a round of job losses following the Government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) announced on October 20.

BAE says that it has now received termination notices for both its Harrier maintenance and Nimrod MRA4 production contracts, affecting 1,900 employees.

Kevin Taylor, Managing Director of BAE Systems Military Air Solutions, said

“Today’s announcement is designed to ensure we remain competitive as we actively pursue a number of opportunities for our other products and services both in the UK and internationally.

Military Air Solutions remains a sustainable business with a strong business plan. I appreciate this is difficult news for our people and we are committed to working with employees and their representatives to explore ways of mitigating the potential job losses.”

Bernie Hamilton from the union Unite said
"This is a tragedy for the workforce and for Britain. The coalition Government's Christmas present to over a thousand skilled workers who support Britain's armed forces is the sack.

Legendary planes like the Lancaster used in the Second World War by the Dambusters will never be built in the UK again.

The country that gave the world the revolutionary Harrier jump jet will lose the know-how to build an aircraft like this.”

The biggest job losses will be at the Woodford factory in Greater Manchester and Warton in Lancashire due to the cancellation of Nimrod with over 1,200 employees affected.

Production of the cancelled Nimrod MRA4 is understood to have continued after the SDSR announcement but the termination will mean the early closure of the Woodford site,
which was due to shut down once production of the aircraft was complete.

[Stratofreighter]

The latest "well-informed rumours" from Woodford are that the first Nimrod MRA4s will already have been scrapped before the end of next month...

[Trueno]

Well, that very good news..... never saw any more ugly aircraft then those Nimrod. The axe is the best way to get rid of them

Cheers

Trueno

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... mrods.html

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.


The Government claims that the decision to scrap the Nimrods will save £2 billion in operating costs over the next decade

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."

[Wildpicture]

Don't these Brits have something like AMARC were they can put these planes into storage? In a few years they may be able to convert them into something they need at that time. Seems such a waste to scrap a new airframe.......

[Polecat]

Don't these Brits have something like AMARC were they can put these planes into storage? In a few years they may be able to convert them into something they need at that time. Seems such a waste to scrap a new airframe.......

ever been in an English desert?

They are not sellable or compatible with anything else flying in the universe (as far as we know now..).... As much as I hate it, there's really no use for them when they're not flying..

[Wildpicture]

ever been in an English desert?

Only with an umbrella.

An old hangar with climate control....?

They are not sellable or compatible with anything else flying in the universe (as far as we know now..).... As much as I hate it, there's really no use for them when they're not flying..

That is the case with most british equipment.

It seems such a waste to scrap brandnew airframes with zero flying hours. In the future they might be able to quickly convert them to flying control centres, recce aircraft, medevacs or even a tanker. Anything better than scrap them.

[frank kramer]

With the British Government talking of saving 2 billion pounds annually: did they or did they not take into account the costs incurred for converting those 4 age-old KC-135's into RC-135W's to replace the Nimrods ?? They can't come THAT cheap, can they ?

[Stratofreighter]

Just got this info from inside Woodford:

PA13 (ex PA03), PA09 (primer), PA11 (fuselage, primer), PA12 (fuselage) are
all between the hangars behind screens.

PA01, PA02 near the golf club.

All the others in the main hangar. Scrapping to start "soon".

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/ ... en-up.html



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12292390 has truly sickening aerial video...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12291372

Nimrod scrapping condemned as 'barbaric vandalism'