# Farewell to an old warrior



## DA SWO (Jul 13, 2011)

*End of a Mighty Hunter: *Britain's 

final two Nimrod R1 electronics intelligence aircraft, Royal Air Force assets based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, went into retirement, ending 37 years of service for the aircraft type. Slated for early phaseout in March under Britain's 2010 defense review, the Ministry of Defence granted the Nimrods a stay of execution to support NATO air operations over Libya. Until the Nimrods' replacements—three RC-135 Rivet Joints that the RAF is acquiring from the US Air Force—enter service in 2014, "we're not going to get the same quality, but we can still do the job," said Air Chief Marshal Stephen Dalton at the Nimrod retirement ceremony at Waddington on June 28. In the interim, RAF crews are co-manning USAF RC-135s. The R1 was one of several Nimrod variants that Britain operated. (British Forces News report by Kaija Larke)


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## Gypsy (Jul 13, 2011)

It's sad to see historic ships, bombers, aircraft etc get retired.  An end of an era I guess.


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## AWP (Jul 13, 2011)

I thought they canned them after the crash in '06.

To me, the real troubling thing about this is the loss of Britain's aerospace industry.


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## DA SWO (Jul 13, 2011)

Freefalling said:


> I thought they canned them after the crash in '06.
> 
> To me, the real troubling thing about this is the loss of Britain's aerospace industry.


Europe flushed it's aerospace industry years ago, consortium started there and has moved here.


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## ÉIREGOBRÁCH1922 (Jul 14, 2011)

They wasted alot of tax payers money in the U.K. after spending millions on upgrading the Nimrods and then deciding to scrap them. 

End of an era.


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## pardus (Jul 14, 2011)

Always sad to see this happen. Must come sooner or later though.


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