3.15 The October 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review announced that the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft would not be brought into service, but that other aircraft, ships and helicopters could contribute to the tasks planned for Nimrod. This decision was taken to balance the Defence budget. The Department noted that, to achieve this, equipment projects would need to be prioritised and some cancelled.23 In the case of the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, the financial benefits would come from avoiding future costs associated with running and supporting the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft up to 2020.
3.16 The Department considered several options for cancelling the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, including completing production of all nine aircraft, or just the three that were largely complete. Completed aircraft could be kept for future sale or storage. The Department judged continuing production as risky because it could involve further difficulties and cost increases of the type that had already been encountered on the project to date. The Department also assessed that there could have been issues with retaining key staff at the production site, when the future of the site was known to be limited.
3.17 Storing any finished aircraft was also discounted because the Department assessed that it would be too expensive to recover the aircraft, such as upgrading and re-establishing training facilities. It could take two to three years from the date of any decision to do so.
3.18 Consequently, the Department opted to immediately cancel contracts and scrap the aircraft, as the other options were deemed to be more expensive and more risky.
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23 Peter Luff, Minister for Defence Equipment Support and Technology, Parliamentary Question 28 October 2010: Column 451W.