Read Mick Smith's blog on the Nimrod crash

The Prime Minister will today face renewed questions over the Government’s support for the armed forces with the publication of the official inquiry report into the loss of a RAF Nimrod spy plane with all 14 people on board.

The ageing Nimrod MR2 reconnaissance aircraft, call sign XV230, crashed in Afghanistan on September 2 last year while carrying out an intelligence-gathering mission. It was the biggest loss of life suffered by British forces in a single incident since the Falklands War.

It has been widely reported that the Nimrod suffered a catastrophic mid-air explosion after a fire broke out in the bomb bay following a fuel leak. If that is confirmed when the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, announces the findings of the Board of Inquiry in a statement to MPs later today, it will lead to fresh questions as to why the aircraft was allowed to carry on flying.

The RAF is already facing accusations that it ignored repeated warnings that the Nimrod MR2 had a history of dangerous fuel leaks. The aircraft’s manufacturers, BAE Systems, were reported to have advised in 2004 that fire extinguishers were fitted in the bomb bays, although this was apparently not taken up by the Ministry of Defence.

A maintenance report by Qinetiq, a defence technology company, in March 2006 was said to have highlighted the problems of fuel leaks on the MR2s - particularly aircraft flying intensive operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Earlier this year Graham Knight, the father of Sergeant Ben Knight, one of the servicemen killed in the crash, released a series of leaked e-mails, which he said came from senior RAF officers. One, dated December 2005, said that XV230 had “fuel-leak issues” which needed to be rectified, while another from February last year warned that the age of the airframe combined with the high tempo of operations was adding to the “leak headache”.

The Nimrod MR1 - which is based on the design of Britain’s first airliner, the de Havilland Comet - first entered service with the RAF in 1969, and was upgraded to the MR2 version in the late 1970s. The existing fleet of 15 aircraft had originally been due to leave service a decade ago but a series of lengthy delays to their replacement - the Nimrod MR4A - mean that they will have to carry on to around 2011. Critics have blamed cost-cutting by the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence for the hold-ups.

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster and MP for Moray which covers RAF Kinloss where the Nimrods are based, has written to Mr Browne, ahead of today’s report, with a series of detailed questions, which, he said, need to be answered.

“Everybody hopes that the inquiry will answer all of the relevant questions about the Nimrod which crashed in Afghanistan and help avoid a repeat of the tragedy,” Mr Robertson said. “There are however, a host of unanswered questions about the safety of the ageing Nimrod fleet as a whole which the Ministry of Defence must answer. The MoD has to restore confidence in the wake of the tragedy and a series of safety incidents.”

Government culpability in risking servicemen’s lives will be thrust to centre stage this afternoon by the inquiry into the causes of the RAF Nimrod explosion over Afghanistan that killed all 14 on board.

There is intense government concern over today's RAF board of inquiry report, which is likely to raise new doubts over Gordon Brown’s support for the armed services.

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