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These images are worthy of public approval. Help and rescue cooperation between Britain and our neighbours in Western Europe are proof that we have valid friends and allies.
And we can certainly trust the Canadians too to operate helicopters around our shores.
The idea is no doubt that equipment that one country has, can be used to the advantage of another country when needed, so-by reducing the costs.
It is unlikely that Nimrod, which was originally meant to be an early-warning system, would be indispensable in search and rescue operations for ships or yachts out at sea, as sufficient technology to do so exists on other air-craft. Not that many modern-day ships tend to have trouble at sea, and so the existing air-craft that would be used for any such necessity are sufficient in number.
Again, search operations of that kind are usually carried out by various countries together, when the need arises. Satelite tracking-technology is probably also very efficient in such cases.
As for keeping the sea-lanes clear using Nimrods, the question is: against whom? Sea-lanes are international, and the threat from Somali pirates is dealt with by ships from many countries operating together.
The tendency towards international cooperation makes it all the more evident that each individual country does not need an anrsenal of hundreds of very expensive warplanes and many warships based on extremely expensive missile and anti-missile technology.
Also, we can expect that other countries will be - and even have been - making similar provisions as Gov. is doing, reducing their massive war-machinery expenditure. So it is reciprocal, and leads the way to a new era where peoples respect each other and cooperate, rather than arming themselves to the teeth with advanced and most expensive military technology.
This process must continue, we cannot turn back.