Nimrod As A Bomber

[Hobbes]

Quoting from this thread on the F-111:

Would the Merlins have been able to undertake the Black Buck missions?

That is the big question. I have my doubts personally.

If the Falklands happen in this timeline, the Vulcans may have to come out of mothballs (presuming they hadn't all been cut up by then) to do Black Buck. Barring that, could they revert a few Victors to do the job?

At a long shot, would America be willing to loan the RAF B-52s for it?

Maybe the Nimrods could have been used. They have a huge bomb bay, plus enough endurance to reach the Falklands with far fewer refuelings than the Vulcans.
According to this post, it can carry 16 x 500lb weapons internally. I don't know if the Nimrods carry a targeting system that can place those bombs with any accuracy, though.

I'm getting inspiration for a Nimrod B.5, filled to the gills with LGBs or JDAM, Storm Shadow and ALARM. Plus a few ASRAAM on the wings, of course.

[B777LR]

Since the RAF also uses Nimrods in afganistan, a load of JDAMs would be effective.

[Jennings]

Yes, aiming them would be a problem.  If you got into the general vicinity of the target, you wouldn't be able to see downward, and your radar wouldn't do you much good, as it's not an attack radar, it's just a search radar.  

Had it come down to a choice between the F-111K, the Nimrod, and bringing ready-for-the-scrapper Vulcans back from retirement (after 5-7 years of inactivity) for Black Buck, you can bet the 111 would have carried the day.



J

[Hobbes]

Then again, the Nimrods were rigged to drop depth charges, which should be the same principle as a freefall bomb?

[P1127]

Mmm, aiming them - in 1982 timescale, stick a Pave Spike on the wing pylon and carry Paveway IIs in the Bomb bay

The idea of Nimrod as a bomber (or 'land attack' aircraft was actively touted by BAE a year or so back

[AeroplaneDriver]

The article on the MRA.4 in Air Forces Monthly earlier this year mentioned the PAveway/JDAM/Storm Shadow capability of the MRA.4.  I cant recall the details (and Storm Shadow may not have been mentioned specifically), but I think the .4 is capable of carrying JDAM/Paveway in the bomb bay (as in the hardware will be there) but that the capablity wont be used for budgetary reasons.

Anyway, like I said, I cant remember the details, but in the article a bomber capability was definitely mentioned.  Whether the RAF will ever be able to afford to use it as such is another matter.  Given the Nimrod deployments to Afghanistan and the loiter capability the aircraft has, I imagine a lot of Squadies on the ground would be very happy if the Nimord on station above had a bay full of PGMs.

[nev]

Well I know the Nimrod was able of carrying "special weapons", but that might have been overkill on Stanley

[P1127]

Had it come down to a choice between the F-111K, the Nimrod, and bringing ready-for-the-scrapper Vulcans back from retirement (after 5-7 years of inactivity) for Black Buck, you can bet the 111 would have carried the day.

Would the 111 have had the range to fly to the Falklands and back (even from Asenscion) - a round trip of 8000 miles?

I know it could refuel in mid-air, but other factors (like oil consumption) ruled out other strike aircraft such as the Buccaneer.

Although I suppose they did a 6K round trip to Libya

[Shasper]

A 'vark strike would have been a logistics headache.

I had thoughts for  bombtruck Nimrod a few yrs back, still waiting on a kit to appear thou.



Shas B)

[Hobbes]

Welsh Models do a 144-scale vacform, but I don't know if that includes a bomb bay.  

[Hobbes]

Well, you could always string some JP233 containers together. How long is that bomb bay again? 18 m or so? You'd have one hell of a submunitions dispenser...

[Shasper]

And a flak magnet to boot Hobbes

Shas B)

[Archibald]

Well, you could always string some JP233 containers together. How long is that bomb bay again? 18 m or so? You'd have one hell of a submunitions dispenser...

Got more or less this idea for a Vulcan  

[AeroplaneDriver]

Well, you could always string some JP233 containers together. How long is that bomb bay again? 18 m or so? You'd have one hell of a submunitions dispenser...

Got more or less this idea for a Vulcan

The problem with the JP233 was the delivery mode; straight down the runway down low.  The Tornado relied on blistering speed to avoid ground fire, and as the 91 Gulf War showed, that was not the best defence.  For a Nimrod, or even Vulcan, using a JP233 would be pretty suicidal.

[Mossie]

Instead of JP.233, how about a small(ish) stand off weapon?  Plenty of room for two in the weapons bay.  You could even have a version with a submunitions dispenser, kind of an early JSOW.  If Nimrod had have entered service as a bomber, some weapons would probably have been developed with it's missions specifically in mind.