UK to install missiles atop roofs to guard London Olympics

reply to post by faryjay


..........why would they need helicopters and jets if they have missiles? And its london, no ones getting far in a car chase.

About time, roll on project-blue beam if you ask me, this # hole of a planet needs some rapture eh? What if big G just raptures all the politicians and totalitarian police scum! Ah heaven on earth and good will toward all men will ensure.

Originally posted by haven123

thank you, i was looking for another suitable vid!

reply to post by woodwardjnr


I see your point and I agree. But my point was that there are already air defenses in place no?
Maybe they want to deal with a threat inside these defenses.
Besides that, I see no point to these SAMs.

This is being discussed on another Olympic related post.
My link I posted there mysteriously does not work now, so here it is:

Sunday April 29, 2012
UK puts missiles on London rooftop to guard Olympics


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's military has told residents of an upscale apartment development near the Olympic Park in east London it is installing a missile battery on top of a tower within their housing complex to defend the 2012 Games this summer.

The site is one of a number around the capital the army is considering as bases for surface-to-air missiles to protect the London games from an aerial attack, the Ministry of Defence said.

It is the first time such missiles have been deployed in London since the end of World War Two, shocking some residents at the Bow Quarter housing development, sited in a converted red-brick Victorian match factory.

"There was no consultation, no one knocked on the door," Brian Whelan, a 28-year-old journalist, told Reuters. "You just wake up one morning, there's a leaflet telling you they are going to put missiles on the roof."

The measure was excessive and had upset his girlfriend, he said. "I can't imagine the circumstances that would require you to fire missiles over a highly populated area."

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond first announced the plans in November, saying Britain would follow the precedent set by previous Olympics such as the Beijing games in 2008 where surface to air missiles were stationed a kilometre south of its showpiece stadiums.

The defence ministry said in a leaflet sent to occupants on Saturday it had chosen the former water tower in the Bow Quarter complex because it offered "an excellent view of the surrounding area and the entire sky above the Olympic Park."

The tower was in fact "the only suitable site in this area for the HVM (High Velocity Missile) system," it added.

The rooftop missile battery is one of a number of extraordinary measures Londoners can expect during the high-profile sporting festival, including restrictions on road lanes for Olympic use and a security bill of more than a billion pounds ($1.6 billion).

ATS thread is:www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by wewillnotcomply666

Originally posted by haven123

thank you, i was looking for another suitable vid!

That thing looks a bit meaty for shooting down London Pigeons around the Olympic Stadium!
Sorry, couldn't resist.

To save time, I'm just going to copy and paste my Facebook status:

I understand that the Olympics is a potential for terrorists to cause harm, but what I am failing to see is how shooting a plane into thousands of falling, heavy pieces over populated areas is any less harmful than said plane just ploughing into the crowds. If anything, I would have thought it would have increased the possible death toll...... www.bbc.co.uk...

reply to post by Dembow


I dont think the UK has any SAMs installed for air defence, they just send up some euro fighters with some AMRAAMs once they pick up anything unidentified(No Transponder). Till now that is.

This 'Super-Size' security garbage is getting entirely out of hand. In years gone by, it was defending against a Black September/Munich type attack and that makes sense. It makes perfect sense to have security for that style of man on man, small arms attack. However, MISSILES??? What do they expect? An AIR FORCE? I dare suggest here that if the threat is REAL (Which I don't believe) then they should reconsider the whole idea of having the games there at all.

Really, lets stop and consider this from the position of those Missiles actually been NEEDED. Aircraft above being shot down right OVER metro-city area.... Wouldn't anyone define that as a risk unacceptable, regardless of what the event may be? Again though, this assumes a threat outside their own dark imaginations actually exists to make this more than a scenario they can go waste more defense money on.

I'm really learning fast that the American and British Governments are really about the same. The PEOPLE sure aren't and the Governments haven't always been flip sides of the same coin like they are now, IMO. Some aspects are running hand in hand now though......all the worst parts.

Originally posted by Dembow
reply to post by woodwardjnr

 

I see your point and I agree. But my point was that there are already air defenses in place no?
Maybe they want to deal with a threat inside these defenses.
Besides that, I see no point to these SAMs.

Not that i'm aware of. We don't have an integrated surface to air missile network if thats what you are suggesting.

There are normally no surface to air missiles protecting cities.

Air threats are intercepted by fighters, as was demonstrated a couple of weeks ago with the Bath helicopter incident. Somebody must have decided that the response time for the fighters isn't good enough.

Either that, or its just for deterrent value.

As you might expect, a "no fly" zone is already planned over London, so surely akin to this concept, measures would already be in place to spot a "rogue" aircraft long before it came so close to the centre of London?

www.flights.co.uk...

In addition, a warship with Typhoons and Lynx helicopters! IMO this is very very heavy handed, and dearly hope it is merely a show of strength to deter any "naughty boys" with "naughty ideas"

www.mirror.co.uk...

Am trying to find out exactly where the building is proposed for the SAM, and how many people live there.

reply to post by justwokeup


There are quite a number of SAM sites in the UK, mostly near nuclear plants. Sellafield near me has several, seen them myself.

It would seem it may be a Starstreak missile unit: (down at the end of the description paragraph in the wiki link below)

en.wikipedia.org...(missile)

And this piece, released an hour or so ago:

www.antipope.org...

For those who are interested, a copy of the leaflet posted out to residents, think you just click on the leaflet to enlarge it enough to read:

www.blowe.org.uk...

The Lexington Building, site of the installation, is on Fairfield Road E3, just the other side of the river from the stadium, here is a google map:

maps.google.co.uk...,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=881&wra pid=tljp1335696124859051&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=map+of+bow+quarter,+london&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=bow+quarter,&hnear=0x47d8a00baf21de75:0x52963a5addd52a99,London&cid= 0,0,13537383676965791346&ei=HxudT5TiO8OJhQf_hJnkDg&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CBIQ_BIwAw

Originally posted by woogleuk
reply to post by justwokeup

 

There are quite a number of SAM sites in the UK, mostly near nuclear plants. Sellafield near me has several, seen them myself.

Interesting. Never seen any and i lived near a nuclear plant for 10 years. I'll have to do some digging on the topic.

thanks

I think the word "could" install SAMs is important.

This is part of the game of telling would be ne'er-do-well's that should they play silly buggers they will not get far. I am sure this type of “controlled press release” is part of a publicity process rather than a serious military strategy. I am pretty sure that SAMs won’t end up on the private roofs and if there is a need then they will sit on the roofs of buildings already controlled by the government.

You can be sure that the UK services are prepared for a range of eventualities and it is press spin that says “under pressure from the US” because that is the mindset of some journalists rather than reality, besides the UK knows enough about security and counter terrorism without their US friends getting in the way, after all the UK has been operating against terrorism for many decades. They say that the SAS are involved, but that stating the bleeding obvious.

As the Olympics gets nearer, the press stories will get more over-the-top in reaction to every nuance and sentence spoken on the subject of security.

Regards

reply to post by paraphi


watch the above video i posted the guy has seen the army taking crates into his block of flats so the seem like there deffo going up there

Originally posted by paraphi
I think the word "could" install SAMs is important.

This is part of the game of telling would be ne'er-do-well's that should they play silly buggers they will not get far. I am sure this type of “controlled press release” is part of a publicity process rather than a serious military strategy. I am pretty sure that SAMs won’t end up on the private roofs and if there is a need then they will sit on the roofs of buildings already controlled by the government.

You can be sure that the UK services are prepared for a range of eventualities and it is press spin that says “under pressure from the US” because that is the mindset of some journalists rather than reality, besides the UK knows enough about security and counter terrorism without their US friends getting in the way, after all the UK has been operating against terrorism for many decades. They say that the SAS are involved, but that stating the bleeding obvious.


As the Olympics gets nearer, the press stories will get more over-the-top in reaction to every nuance and sentence spoken on the subject of security.

Regards

If we think that the installations wouldn't end up on private roofs, then why have people been given leaflets outlining the whole event?

www.blowe.org.uk...

I would wager it seems a very real prospect to those guys having had a leaflet dropped onto their doormat.

just like to pop in with my point of view,

www.royalnavy.mod.uk... ,hms daring is just one of the ships we own that is capable of laying down a defensive sheild against air attacks and could be sent to the thames river,we have been fitting most of our ships with these type of systems since the 80s,there is no need to start deploying these on streets and buildings,i come from a military town and have grew up looking out my window and playing amongst this tech,so if we can just park up a ship ,why are we using this method ,,there seems more to this then is currently known by us i think..............

Originally posted by UKmonster
reply to post by faryjay

 

..........why would they need helicopters and jets if they have missiles? And its london, no ones getting far in a car chase.

Ummmm ... Sarcasm ring a bell???