The Nimrod Review - Official Documents

The Nimrod Review
22
Military role and importance of the Nimrod MR2
2.40
The Nimrod was originally designed as a successor to the Avro Shackleton Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) in the
maritime reconnaissance role. 24 The aircraft was specifically designed and built for maritime reconnaissance.
Since 1969, it has fulfilled a largely maritime role, until its more recent involvement overland in Afghanistan
and Iraq. The ability of the Nimrod to transit at high speed and then ‘loiter’ at a lower speed for long periods
made it ideally suited to the task of maritime reconnaissance. The terms MPA and Maritime Reconnaissance are
effectively interchangeable and encompass a number of key subsidiary roles. The first is that of Anti-Submarine
Warfare (ASW). The Nimrod is equipped with a range of sensors, including sonobuoys and radar to detect
submarines, and torpedoes to attack them if required. The aircraft can also undertake Anti Surface-Unit Warfare
(ASUW), using its sensors to detect, identify and track surface vessels; and, if required, the Nimrod can also use
the same sensors to guide other aircraft to attack these surface vessels. While carrying out both roles, the Nimrod
will collect and convey intelligence information to its operating authority. The final core role of the MPA is that of
Search and Rescue (SAR). Nimrods can utilise all of their sensors to undertake long range SAR missions and are
capable of dropping survival equipment and of guiding helicopters to specific locations to rescue survivors.
2.41 During the Cold War the RAF Kinloss and RAF St. Mawgan Nimrod squadrons maintained regular surveillance
of Soviet maritime activities and supported UK and allied naval forces. Although the Nimrod’s principal area
of operations was destined to be the North Atlantic, its specification25 required it to be capable of world-wide
employment. It was deployed regularly to the Mediterranean and the Gulf; indeed, Nimrods were even used to
rendezvous with Royal Navy (RN) submarines surfaced at the North Pole in 1988. The MR2 was also involved in
fishery protection in the Cod Wars (1973-1976) and SAR operations such as the Fastnet Race (1979), Alexander
Kielland (1980), Virgin Atlantic Challenger (1985), Piper Alpha (1988), as well as numerous other maritime
support operations. For many years, a Nimrod and crew were held at 60 minutes readiness to conduct SAR
operations within the UK’s area of responsibility, an area which stretches out into the middle of the Atlantic.
2.42 As noted above, the Nimrod fleet was adapted for AAR and deployed in the Falklands War (1982), where it
provided much needed support to the deploying British fleet and ensured that the UK’s forward deployment
base at Ascension Island remained secure.
2.43 The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent end of the decades long Cold War witnessed the
demise of the vast Soviet naval arsenal against which the Nimrod fleet had been ranged. However, new, equally
challenging tasks soon presented themselves. Nimrods were deployed in the Persian Gulf War (First Gulf War)
of 1990, when, amongst other things, they provided targeting information against Iraqi naval units, and
participated in the UN blockade of Iraq (1990-1991). The aircraft also found gainful employment patrolling the
waters of the Adriatic during the conflicts that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia.
Evolution and expansion of the Nimrod’s role
2.44
Advances in computer technology meant that it became increasingly possible to co-ordinate the activities and
products of military information gatherers. The importance of ensuring that commanders had access to all the
information that they required led to concepts such as Network Enabled Capability, in which multiple gatherers
of information feed an interlinked network, supplying data to multiple recipients. Whether the gatherer is
an individual on the ground, a tank, an aircraft or a satellite does not matter. Thus developed the concept of
Intelligence, Surveillance, Target-Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR). Clearly the Nimrod (in both MR and
R roles) is a major ISTAR asset. The size and flexibility of the Nimrod airframe and its crews allowed Nimrod to
assume new intelligence roles as and when required. 26 The aircraft’s ability to loiter for long periods was utilised,
in combination with a new optical sensor, in operations over Afghanistan and Iraq. The fact that the aircraft was
24 Although 3 aircraft were built to fulfil an ELINT role for No. 51 Sqn, replacing Comet aircraft.
25 Aircraft Specification No MR254 D&P for HS801 Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft, page 1, paragraph 2.1.
26 The use of aircraft in roles for which they were not originally designed is not a new development. Most of the land-based MPA of the Second World
War were converted bombers. The Nimrod’s predecessor, the Shackleton had been used as a bomber (in Aden) and as a troop transport during the
Suez crisis. During operations in support of ground forces in Oman in the late 1950s Shackletons flew 429 sorties, dropped 1500 tons of bombs and
expended 700,000 rounds of ammunition. One crew even performed a close air support mission, using their nose cannons against a rebel position.