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The Ministry of Defence says it is evaluating sites for surface-to-air missiles for the Olympic Games, and could place them at residential flats.

Residents at an estate in east London have received a leaflet saying soldiers could be placed there during the Games.

It says part of an air defence system might be based at a water tower on the estate, where 700 people live.

A spokesman said the MoD had not yet decided whether to deploy ground based air defence systems during the Games.

The leaflet states that members of the Armed Forces will be at the location for a military exercise in early May for between five and seven days, between 2 and 7 May.

It goes on to say that there will be a "major national exercise" from 2 to 10 May to test the Armed Forces' capabilities to help the police provide security during the Olympics.

Improve security
And if the government decides to use the missiles during the Games, then the soldiers could be "operationally deployed for a period of up to two months this summer".


This part of the leaflet assures residents that their residence will not become a terrorist target
The MoD also says in the leaflet that the missiles will be manned by "fully trained, professional soldiers", will not pose a hazard to residents and the missiles "will only be authorised for active use following specific orders from the highest levels of government in response to a confirmed and extreme security threat".

The document also states that "having a 24/7 Armed Forces and police presence will improve your local security and will not make you a target for terrorists".

Journalist Brian Whelan, a resident at the flats, said: "They are going to have a test run next week, putting high velocity missiles on the roof just above our apartment and on the back of it they're stationing police and military in the tower of the building for two months.

"It's a private, gated community... We have an MoD leaflet saying the building is the only suitable place in the area.

"It says there will be 10 officers plus police present 24/7. I'm not sure if they are going to live in the building."

'Not normal'
Mr Whelan also said that the property management company which runs the flats put up posters and gave out the leaflets
A MoD spokesman said: "As announced before Christmas, ground based air defence systems could be deployed as part of a multi-layered air security plan for the Olympics, including fast jets and helicopters, which will protect the skies over London during the Games.

"Based on military advice we have identified a number of sites and, alongside colleagues from the Metropolitan Police, are talking to local authorities and relevant landowners to help minimise the impact of any temporary deployments.

"As part of our ongoing planning, we can confirm site evaluations have taken place."

The MoD has previously been considering plans to install surface-to-air missiles in south-east London at Blackheath and Shooters Hill during the Olympics.

Who has been trying to nuke the olympics?

seems like overkill to me.

but hey, you cannot be TOO careful, right?

Maybe it will just be the fanciest lighting of the torch yet?

Yes, lighting the Torch with a SAM! How great would that be?! And if the aim was a little off and they just happened to hit Beckham and/or BoJo then so much the better!

This Olympics will be such a farce

loki old fart wrote:This Olympics will be such a farce

That's the spirit!

I can see where you get your name from..

Have faith Loki, I'm sure it'll go by without so much as a hitch......

As long as the Athletes don't get stuck at Border Control and the underground system can handle the expected 3 million extra people per day, and the police and armed forces can cope with the security and.....

Yeah, I see what you mean

They should charge the MoD a non-refundable security deposit. Easy money.

Why stop with a SAM? I dare say that a ICBM site also should be deployed. Just in case

Screw the ICBM, use Goldeneye.

Journalist Brian Whelan, a resident at the flats, said: "They are going to have a test run next week, putting high velocity missiles on the roof just above our apartment and on the back of it they're stationing police and military in the tower of the building for two months.

are there low velocity missiles?

I believe North Korea has been developing those ones. Some fuss about it around.

sarpedons-right-hand wrote:Yes, lighting the Torch with a SAM! How great would that be?! And if the aim was a little off and they just happened to hit Beckham and/or BoJo then so much the better!

Realistically it's the only way we're going to one-up China's opening ceremony!

AustonT wrote:

Journalist Brian Whelan, a resident at the flats, said: "They are going to have a test run next week, putting high velocity missiles on the roof just above our apartment and on the back of it they're stationing police and military in the tower of the building for two months.

are there low velocity missiles?

Relative to missiles there probably are...

purplefood wrote:

AustonT wrote:

Journalist Brian Whelan, a resident at the flats, said: "They are going to have a test run next week, putting high velocity missiles on the roof just above our apartment and on the back of it they're stationing police and military in the tower of the building for two months.

are there low velocity missiles?

Relative to missiles there probably are...

That was a comment based more on media says media things. Like every gun is a high powered rifle, even if it shoots plastic pellets.

purplefood wrote:

AustonT wrote:

Journalist Brian Whelan, a resident at the flats, said: "They are going to have a test run next week, putting high velocity missiles on the roof just above our apartment and on the back of it they're stationing police and military in the tower of the building for two months.

are there low velocity missiles?

Relative to missiles there probably are...

Basically, when they say high-velocity in a missile, they're talking about mach 3+. Fast enough to accurately shoot down other missiles.

TermiesInARaider wrote:

purplefood wrote:

AustonT wrote:

Journalist Brian Whelan, a resident at the flats, said: "They are going to have a test run next week, putting high velocity missiles on the roof just above our apartment and on the back of it they're stationing police and military in the tower of the building for two months.

are there low velocity missiles?

Relative to missiles there probably are...

Basically, when they say high-velocity in a missile, they're talking about mach 3+. Fast enough to accurately shoot down other missiles.

It's a Rapier system, designed to shoot down planes, not missiles.
Anyways, I thought most of the recent Olympics had involved things like this anyway?

Lux_Lucis wrote:

TermiesInARaider wrote:

purplefood wrote:

AustonT wrote:

Journalist Brian Whelan, a resident at the flats, said: "They are going to have a test run next week, putting high velocity missiles on the roof just above our apartment and on the back of it they're stationing police and military in the tower of the building for two months.

are there low velocity missiles?

Relative to missiles there probably are...

Basically, when they say high-velocity in a missile, they're talking about mach 3+. Fast enough to accurately shoot down other missiles.

It's a Rapier system, designed to shoot down planes, not missiles.
Anyways, I thought most of the recent Olympics had involved things like this anyway?

Yeah but the Chinese are crazy...

It would be so much more efficient to just have a CAP and AWACS (and a 2 flight QRA) flying then stationing a Rapier Optically tracked short range missile system, or if all weather they need a BLINDFIRE Radar turning and burning continuously (filing the locality with lots of High frequency High energy shortwave Radar....nice!). This means you need boots on the ground 24/7 you need rotation of personnel and re-supply (it's apparently 60days?) , command and control, Communications, security. From a military standpoint, The whole thing is nonsense it's a political /deterrent piece not practical militarily. You are just as likely to end up putting a missile through an intervening tower block once launched, as the target continues to manoeuvre.

Anyone want to discuss Isopleth Engagement Theory? Didn't think so... modern understanding of military equipment is extremely simplistic. Speed does not equal interception, it's about maneouvring into a spatial position to intercept with the highest probability of a kill, speed is nothing without maneouvrability, angle of intercept combined with target lead in, speed of target, seeker head type etc all come into play. No point firing an IR missile Head on, with a target, it needs to do a 180 to seek on the IR source (e.g jet engine), equally electro-optical is no good in certain weather conditions, Radar can be screwed up my Anomalous propagation and false echos from atmospherics. Best solution, man in an Aircraft.

EDIT - Yes the Olympics is going to be a Damn Farce....I couldn't get tickets in the UK to the London Olympics, the lottery system meant you didn't know where you going or what tickets you were getting. I won 2 tickets to the Football in the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff!!! FFS I live there and I don't even like football, I want to going see anything but sodding Football. I want to go to London and soak up the atmosphere and enjoy it. Oh and due to an act of parliament you cannot just sell the tickets.....In the end my father joined the German Olympic association and bought us all some tickets directly from Germany to the events we wanted to see, no fuss, no lottery no nonsense (German efficiency!). So what part of that doesn't sound like a farce? It hasn't even started yet and people are struggling to get in through passport control in Heathrow. I'm not being negative, I want to enjoy this, but typically Britain screws this up by being so stupidly over the top left wing about everything.....Tickets should have been 1st come 1st served. Hundreds went to Coporate entites and are now being used to pedal products (like cadbury's chocolate).

TOTAL ASS FARCE.

The government love doing gak like that this. It's a show of strength to show how efficient and caring they are. There is zero risk of Ground-to-air missiles being used in defence of London or "the games". Maybe if they were being held in Tel-Aviv but really there's nowhere near to the UK that could launch an attack and even if they did the RAF would intercept them before they got anywhere near London.

Joey wrote:The government love doing gak like that this. It's a show of strength to show how efficient and caring they are. There is zero risk of Ground-to-air missiles being used in defence of London or "the games". Maybe if they were being held in Tel-Aviv but really there's nowhere near to the UK that could launch an attack and even if they did the RAF would intercept them before they got anywhere near London.

The fear is a hijacking, not a traditional attack. Instead of letting an aircraft plough itself into the Olympic Stadium the last resort would be to shoot it down (not sure what they'd do about the bits falling all over London).
The increase in the number of Typhoons at readiness is for the same reason.

Shooting down an Airliner, might be worse than allowing it to impact, turning one pseudo-missile hitting a stadium into a 100,000 shrapnel and much larger fragments including vapourised fuel over a huge area like a low level cluster munition. The aircraft itself on 9/11 didn't kill many, it was the subsequent high level fires trapping people and building collapses, look at the Pentagon strike it was just under 200. The Stadium is Steel and Concrete, flying an aluminium 160 tonne plane into it at 350mph will be bad, but the stadium would still be standing, if damaged on one corner/side. If It, however, came in vertically directly into the stands, it doesn't bare thinking about.



Either way, ground based missiles aren't good enough. They are design for taking out Fighters and Fighter-bombers and Helo's, not boeings or Airbuses. A constant CAP (Combat Air Patrol) of a pair of Eurofighters a few miles out running circular patrol would be best.

The truth is, a better target with a higher chance of success would be a public transport attack, such as buses or the Tube.

mwnciboo wrote:Shooting down an Airliner, might be worse than allowing it to impact, turning one pseudo-missile hitting a stadium into a 100,000 shrapnel fragments over a huge area like a low level cluster munition.

Either way, ground based missiles are crap. They are design for taking out Fighters and Fighter-bombers and Helo's, not boeings or Airbuses. A constant CAP (Combat Air Patrol) of a pair of Eurofighters a few miles out running circular patrol would be best.

Maybe someone is expecting a lead fandango...

I'm expecting this crap to get worse, like stationing Warships in the Thames (seriously WTF are they going to do?).

I reckon, about 1-2 months before (next few weeks) you will see a step up in Anti-Terror Raids and disruption of their activites. So that any organisation on the Intelligence radar will know the authorities are breathing down their necks and it will disrupt any potential opportunistic attacks. We still may have some, but it will be very unlikely and it will inspire a level of confidence in the Met Police and the Government.

On present form, What will probably happen is Teressa May will get the wrong day and announce the arrests early (to a Murdoch paper) and they will go underground and she will get sacked after several weeks of the Prime Minister prevaricating. Like a Black-Comedy of Errors, sort of the BBC's "2012" meets "HOMELAND" .

They already have a warship in the Thames...

Actually that it's a mooring too, a few years back we Parked the RICHMOND alongside BELFAST. (techincally although she's called HMS BELFAST she's not Commissioned, whereas HMS VICTORY actually is).



Loved going on a run ashore in London, so much to do!

The guns still work AFAIK...

The turrets do not rotate or elevate... so it's useless. Unless you want to bombard Scratchwood Motorway Services which is where they are aimed at.

mwnciboo wrote:The turrets do not rotate or elevate... so it's useless. Unless you want to bombard Scratchwood Motorway Services which is where they are aimed at.

Yeah that'd totally show the terrorists