Why complain about the scrapping of Nimrod now ?

There's a lot more to the letter to the Telegraph today from ex-Service chiefs talking about he damage of scrapping the Nimrod MK4s.

Its all about timing and the dog that didn't bark.

Why complain when its too late. At least one airframe is wrecked - the others will be by the end of the week. In short its too late. When you complain about a course of action when its effectively too late to stop it your motives must be questioned.

And why did no one complain in these terms at the time of the announcement ?

I've already blogged about the mystery of the governments attitude to Nimrod, given our maritime nations obvious defence needs. But there's also the mystery of its critics.

Nothing makes sense - except ( and I hate to say this as I'm falling into the blogger typecasting trap ) a conspiracy.

The only people to be deceived, again, are the public. A game of politics is being played out with the security of the country and its very worrying.

Further: Thomas Harding reports service staff already starting to look around for a replacement for Nimrod ! Clearly something is very wrong.

To see the maritime aircraft your Govt. will be making you pay for in a few years (again) look here.

Also see this summary on spyflight.co.uk of the Nimrod MK4A project which perhaps gives clues as to why Govt. is so keen to hush everything up. ( This suggests is a Govt vs the people thing, not a party political issue - which in many ways is even more worrying. )

See also Dr Liam Fox answer's the critics here.

My view is that Nimrod was clearly a disastrous project - but it has been neither in the contractor's, MOD's, RAF's, nor politician's (of both parties) interests to admit as much.

Of course the need for a system such as Nimrod MKA4 is obvious ( hence all the press now ), but the lesson to be learnt is being seeped under the carpet.