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UK RAF eyes maritime warfare return for Nimrods
By Tim Ripley
17 March 2008
UK Royal Air Force (RAF) commanders are moving to rebuild the maritime warfare skills of their Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR.2 maritime patrol aircraft force.
Such skills have faded after seven years of the fleet concentrating on over-land surveillance in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The high point of these efforts - which have been dubbed Project Hunter - will be the deployment of two Nimrods to Hawaii in July this year to participate in the bi-annual 'Rimpac' (Rim of the Pacific) exercise run by the US Navy.
Senior RAF officers have told Jane's that the commitment of the RAF Kinloss-based Nimrod force to support UK and coalition land forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 has allowed its primary anti-submarine (ASW) and anti-surface unit warfare (ASuW) skills to atrophy.