UK Nuclear Weapons convoy

I'm suprised they were allowed to follow and film the escort without hassle..

So it got me thinking...if you were part of a terrorist group with knowledge of the route, what tactic would you use to attack the escort?

www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by twisted_fate
So it got me thinking...if you were part of a terrorist group with knowledge of the route, what tactic would you use to attack the escort?

What on earth made you think that?

There's no law preventing the filming of these convoys, and they're using public roads too.

If someone at ATS can think "Oooh, terrorist target!" then I'm sure the British authorities can and had plans in place to deal with it. Those army jeeps and police vans were likely packed with armed officers and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a helicopter somewhere in the sky.

"What on earth made you think that?"

lol - because it seems so obvious that people would be thinking about it.

If they are well trained and VERY well armed I guess they could get away with a warhead or two

I'm not so sure. One would suspect that the warheads in that convoy have some sort of tracking device on them, so if they did go missing they could be located and recovered quickly.

I imagine there'd be someone at a base somewhere constantly monitoring the convoy's progress, and we don't know which unit was in the army jeeps... could be the SAS, who are trained in protecting convoys and so on. It wouldn't surprise me considering what's in the trucks

From what i've heard/read there usually a couple of minibuses full of Royal Marines Commandos following that thing around and all the Police are MoD Police so there all armed too, Dont know about SAS but thoses landrovers have to have someone in them...

There already are terrorists following these convoys and trying to hit them...
www.nukewatch.org.uk...

Silly anti nuclear hippies!

[edit on 16/2/07 by C ROBERTSON]

I'm not quite sure about the technical aspects of the Trident system... does anyone know what sorts of safety measures nuclear warheads have? Would they need to actually be in a missile to detonate?

I can't see the MoD sending warheads on public roads if they were easy to detonate.

Originally posted by Ste2652
I'm not quite sure about the technical aspects of the Trident system... does anyone know what sorts of safety measures nuclear warheads have? Would they need to actually be in a missile to detonate?

I can't see the MoD sending warheads on public roads if they were easy to detonate.

I was under the impression that nuclear bombs cant detonate simply by outside explosion, then you just get a dirty bomb(minmal explosion, lots of radiation within a small area). Its to do with the way that the radioactive material decays by the controled spliting of an atom by a neutron within a sealed unit, starting a chain reaction untill it hits critical mass and then BANG! Something like that i'm sure. But again, you only get a dirty bomb if its involved in an uncontroled explosion, mind you it could just be the movies talking

[edit on 16/2/07 by C ROBERTSON]

[edit on 16/2/07 by C ROBERTSON]

Originally posted by twisted_fate
"What on earth made you think that?"

lol - because it seems so obvious that people would be thinking about it.

If they are well trained and VERY well armed I guess they could get away with a warhead or two

What on Earth made you think that Those trucks were transporting nuclear weapons?

Could it have been the obvious Police and security presence?
Could that have been a tactic of Mis-Direction?

Did anyone else notice that the large motorhome/RV-like truck towing a trailer, which appears at 1:15 in the clip

Is NEVER seen again as part of the convoy?

Watch the clip again, see for yourselves. Or don't see, as the case may be!

Originally posted by Bhadhidar
Did anyone else notice that the large motorhome/RV-like truck towing a trailer, which appears at 1:15 in the clip

Is NEVER seen again as part of the convoy?

Watch the clip again, see for yourselves. Or don't see, as the case may be!

Well, it is only a six minute clip and it's focusing on the trucks carrying the warheads themselves. That truck could've dropped back or was perhaps simply leaving the base at the same time as the rest of the convoy. You'll notice that just after it there's a coach (which looks empty) that drives past the camera which also doesn't appear again.

Originally posted by C ROBERTSON
There already are terrorists following these convoys and trying to hit them...
www.nukewatch.org.uk...

Silly anti nuclear hippies!

[edit on 16/2/07 by C ROBERTSON]

If you go onto that link (yes i know, i did. ) Then it tells you about the standard make up of these convoys, the coach is to transport everyone to accomodation once they reach there destination. Also the fact that there heavily guarded and travel from the UK's nuke weapons research labs to Faslane, the base for Trident kind of indicates something, no?

Interesting video, could have done without the soundtrack but whatever. Couple of observations.

1. Interesting that they has an "auxillary" cab at the front of the convoy. If one of the warhead trucks breaks down they simply switch out a working cab and the cargo keeps moving. No waiting for a AAA tow truck (Sorry UK don't know what your roadside assistance is called). Wouldn't have thought about that.

2. While they are using public roadways, it does seem that the camera crewy were traveling a much higher rate of speed than the rest of the flow of traffic. This would definitely cause concern among the convoy logistics and security group (see no 3)

3. At around the 5 minute mark it appears the camera person is leaning out of the vehicle and filming the convoy. So you have a person leaning out the window of a vehicle, following a military convoy and pointing an "object" (the camera) much like a sighting device. Hmmm that sounds like a bad idea considering YES there is someone is those Range Rovers, most likely specially trained and heavily armed personnel. I have heard that there are specific groups in the US military that do nothing but guard dangerous convoys. I am surprised the car was not at least stopped by the local police for inspection.

4. The transport trucks were surprisingly flimsy by my standards. It appeared they had a small front end deflector but I would think it would be a much sturdier piece of equipment. The rear "ramming" brace looked fairly good. When you see the part of the video where the woman describes each passing vehicle the transports look like steel shipping container type enclosures. When you see the camera pass the transports they look like nothing more than rubber coverings, the video is not clear enough to discern but please tell me they are more complex than rubber...

Originally posted by toppdogg
2. While they are using public roadways, it does seem that the camera crewy were traveling a much higher rate of speed than the rest of the flow of traffic. This would definitely cause concern among the convoy logistics and security group (see no 3)

They seem to get these nuclear protesters following pretty much every convoy so they must be pretty adept at spotting them now (according to the nukewatch site, they've been bothering the convoys since at least 1997). The convoy is limited to the speed of the warhead trucks (which is 60mph according to the Highway Code) so they have to pretty much maintain that speed or the convoy breaks up.

When you see the camera pass the transports they look like nothing more than rubber coverings, the video is not clear enough to discern but please tell me they are more complex than rubber...

It probably is some sort of waterproof material and the warheads themselves will be stored in secure crates held in place within the truck. The reason? To keep the weight of the trucks down. They want to make as few stops as possible for fuel and need to maintain a constant speed (i.e. around 60mph) and so they'll do what they can to keep the weight of the trucks down which will reduce fuel consumption and make it easier to build up and maintain speed.

Well, it is only a six minute clip and it's focusing on the trucks carrying the warheads themselves. That truck could've dropped back or was perhaps simply leaving the base at the same time as the rest of the convoy. You'll notice that just after it there's a coach (which looks empty) that drives past the camera which also doesn't appear again.

the warheads themselves might have been in the coach; or why should a coach that appears empty join in a convoy when it doesn't contain anything?
Remember these people do not do anything without a reason. So the theoretical terrorists waiting in a potential ambush position with the intent to acquire those warheads might target all those military trucks thinking that those were the ones carrying the warheads and disable those vehicles which are obviously carrying personnel escorting the warheads but the coach might easily blend in with civilian traffic once it gets away from such a hypothetical ambush.



the pic above is of a Minuteman warhead being decommissioned, how many such warheads would fit inside a coach of that size? is the UK using warheads of the same size? or perhaps bigger ones?

They're Trident missiles, so I'm not sure as to the size. And C ROBERTSON said in an earlier post that the coach is for transporting the people in the convoy to accommodation once the warheads reach their destination.

The three support vehicles of Mobile Workshop & trailer, Breakdown Truck, and Support Coach travel some distance behind the main convoy. If the carriers are held up then these vehicles will wait several miles behind.

Size of the warheads or the actual warhead delivery system? or both?

[edit on 18/2/07 by C ROBERTSON]

The trident missiles are 13m high with a 2m diameter, thats including the warheads.

British nuclear warheads cannot be detonated without being activated by an order from tony Blair. It comes through an encrypted signal and then once armed can only be launched by the submarine commanders authorization code.

The map even shows where the convoys stop off for the night!

The trident missiles belong to the Navy so it is the Marines who guard the convoy along with SBS counter terrorist teams. The convoy is tracked visualy by sattelite for it entire journey.

Originally posted by Jimmy1880
British nuclear warheads cannot be detonated without being activated by an order from tony Blair. It comes through an encrypted signal and then once armed can only be launched by the submarine commanders authorization code.

So, basically, if a terrorist group were to hijack the convoy then they wouldn't be able to detonate the warheads anyway without the encryption code? Would they need to be fitted inside a Trident missile and be activated by the submarine commander's code also before detonating?

I'm sure it's practically impossible to detonate a warhead on its own.
They are designed to sustain large impacts and fires without going off on accident. If terrorists stole one and surrounded it with high explosives it would be very dangerous and spread radiation everywhere but there wouldn't be a nuclear yield.

The security looked subdued to me. I've seen live Trident missiles moved around sub bases in the US and there is so much security, it would take a professional army to steal it. No way in hell even 20-30 armed terrorists would have a chance.

There's an interesting reason behind the UK decision to transport their nukes by road.

Back in the very early 1970s the nukes used to be transported by road to a RN Base and from there to Faslane by ship.

But after a severe storm drove the ship to seek shelter in an Irish port, it was considered wiser to not give PIRA the opportunity to gain access to nuclear weapons!

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