In our final Chapter of the Cold War Coastal Command series, we are honoured to speak to Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge, KCB, CBE, ADC, FCMI, FRAeS. Sir Brian takes us not only through flying the Nimrod and Nimrod operations in the Cold War period, but also explains how the Nimrod was used strategically in theatres such as the Falklands War, Operation Telic and the Iraq War, as well as drug running in the Caribbean.

Nimrod XV250 is based at the Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington near York. She was dedicated by the Archbishop of York to stand as a permanent tribute to the 14 British servicemen killed in Afghanistan when Nimrod XV230 crashed near Kandahar in September 2006.

For years the Air Staff and Ministries had argued over what type should replace the Shackleton, including variants of the Vulcan, Britannia, VC10 and Trident, before settling for the Nimrod in 1964.
We return to Chris Gibson, author of the brilliant book ‘Nimrod’s Genesis’, to learn how the process unfolded.

There is a Shackleton that still ‘Growls’ and this chapter features Shackleton MR2 WR963, currently based at Coventry but with a major project underway to move her to Elvington and the Yorkshire Air Museum.