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77MARITIME OPERATIONS FROM ASCENSIONWing Commander Derek StrawDerek Straw joined the RAF in 1961 and spentpractically the whole of the next 34 years as anavigator in the maritime world. This involvedflying tours on Shackletons and Nimrods and staffappointments with the RN and with major NATOmaritime commands. For the last five years he hasbeen flying with FR Aviation as a systems operatoron the Dornier 228, Britten Norman Islander andC26 Metroliner, again, predominantly in themaritime surveillance role. Unfortunately, ageism has recently raised itsugly head, and despite his nearly 10,000 hours of practical experience,he is once more available for employment!Between early April and August of 1982 I enjoyed three separatedetachments with Nimrods to Ascension Island (ASI). My first movewas courtesy of the initial Nimrod MR1 detachment, with the aim ofjoining Admiral Woodward%u2019s staff. Fortunately the press gang rejectedme as excess baggage and I was able to rejoin my MR2 crew busilytraining to return to ASI with a much modified aircraft. After theArgentine surrender I commanded the much reduced Nimroddetachment. But I am getting ahead of myself. The MR1 was equippedwith ASV-21 radar and, of course, a normal Nimrod endurance of 9hours. This allowed the traditional Nimrod roles and tasks to commencebut, crucially, confined them to within 1700 nms of ASI.After two weeks, the first of the upgraded Nimrod MR2s, equippedwith the more powerful Searchwater radar, began replacing the MR1s.The Searchwater, with its classification capability and IFF interrogator,brought immediate benefits to the efficiency of the Nimrod task.However, once the units of Task Force (TF) 317 were beyond Nimrod%u2019srange, ultra long-range surface surveillance had to be passed to Victortankers operating in the MRR role %u2013 possibly with Royal Navyhelicopters in the low-level identification role. In particular, the Victorsprovided surveillance in advance of the re-taking of South Georgia byHMS Glamorgan and TF units.It was the arrival of the first air-to-air refuelling (AAR) capableMR2P in early May that gave us the required reach. The rapid provision