British Aerospace Nimrod AEW3

Nimrod AEW3
Nimrod AEW3
Role	Airborne early warning and control
Manufacturer	British Aerospace
First flight	16 July 1980
Introduction	1984
Retired	1986
Status	Development cancelled
Primary user	Royal Air Force
Produced	11
Number built	3 prototype 8 production (all converted from MR1)
Developed from	Hawker Siddeley Nimrod

The British Aerospace Nimrod AEW3 was a planned airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft intended as to provide airborne radar cover for the air defence of the United Kingdom by the Royal Air Force (RAF). The project was designed to use the existing Nimrod airframe, in use with the RAF as a maritime patrol aircraft, combined with a brand new radar system and avionics package developed by BAE Systems Avionics.

The Nimrod AEW project proved to be hugely complex and expensive for the British government, as a result of the difficulties of producing brand new radar and computer systems and integrating them successfully into the Nimrod airframe. Despite close to a decade's work, the project was eventually cancelled, with the RAF instead purchasing new build Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft to fulfil the AEW requirement.

In the mid 1960s following the development of the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye carrier-borne AEW aircraft and its associated systems, the British government began looking around for a radar system that could be used to provide airborne early warning for the United Kingdom. At the time, the only recognised AEW aircraft in British service was the Fairey Gannet aircraft used by the Fleet Air Arm on board Royal Navy aircraft carriers. These were fitted with the AN/APS-20 Radar, which had been developed during World War II and was rapidly becoming obsolete. Work had been started in the early 1960s on a brand new AEW platform for the Royal Navy to replace the Gannet that would encompass both a new type of radar system mounted on a new aircraft, the P.139. While the defence cuts of the mid 1960s led to the cancellation of the P.139, work continued on a wholly British designed radar system, while strategic thinking led to a decision being taken that the RAF needed an AEW aircraft to operate as part of the national air defence strategy.

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