By the looks of it, as already concluded by other posters, this seems to just be a re-warmed F-5. The nose has been expanded a bit, probably to allow something like the Kopyo or similar, the tail has simply been replaced as a unit with twin tails. This does not show much about Iranian aerospace capabilities though. As for the engines, they would appear to be the normal J-85s, possibly up-rated, which is not very difficult, given that the J-85 was designed to provide a range of thrust levels. Also, if you are willing to accept a shorter engine life, you can simply run the engines a bit harder, giving more thrust – with low labour costs, the engines are probably quite cheap!

It is always a good show, and well worth watching, just hope the weather holds!

It is possible that they were talking in terms of boosting the Nimrod R1 fleet with extra airframes. They could prove very useful as comms relay aircraft, making up for the lack of satellite bandwith available. In this case, the extra airframes would probably free up the R1s for their proper role.

Sadly, Turbinia is right, there will be two large CVF hulls (which I am strongly in favour of), but very few ships to actually escort them! It is looking like there may only be 6 Type 45, 12 frigates, and 6 Astutes, which is simply not enough. On the other hand, once the carriers are bought, hopefully more escorts will be bought, though not if the current budget remains (i.e. if Gordon Brown moves next door).

Just an update, the show now appears to be on. Saturday 9th Septempber 2006.

Fitted for but not with sounds suspiciously like ‘it has hardpoints, so it could eventually be fitted with’…

As for SDBs on Nimrod, it has to be remembered that the SDB has a range of 80-100km when released at height! The Nimrod may not be stealthy, but would be very useful once high-altitude defensive SAMs are taken out (which is the idea behind Storm Shadow capability) – Afghanistan or Iraq being good examples. With its long, wide weapons bays, it should be able to carry a very respectable load of SDBs, giving the UK the ability to hit dozens of targets in a single strike. The Falklands would actually be an area where this capability would be very useful, where a Nimrod could launch Storm Shadows, flying from Ascension, with no need for Tanker support, then switch to SDBs for follow-up raids.

I hope they add Storm Shadow to the MRA-4, but also to the A-400Ms – there was/is a proposal to carry about 12-16 missiles on each. I’m a bit surprised about the 707 purchase suggestion though – I suppose it would still be cheaper in the short term than buying Global Express bizjets for conversion though.

One thing I would really like to see added to the fleet would be SDBs – the Nimrod could probably carry quite a few internally, using the external hardpoints for Storm Shadows, or even more SDBs!