Strange Goings On In The UK

Well, like the title says, there's been some very odd things happening where I am, and I've an inside contact who's telling me that this is not isolated to just my area, so I'll be interested to see what other UK ATSers have to say about this too.

Lots of jet fighters, marines helicopters and various other military road vehicles and aircraft have been going by lately. LOTS of them. You get the occasionaly one or two every so often and that's normal for anyone, with varying frequency depending on how close you are to a base. But here we've been experiencing far more than normal.

A few weeks ago I went to the seaside for a short boat trip, and there were landing craft landing on the beaches up the coast. That same day, a couple of jets passed over VERY low. Since then it's been a no holds barred full military display.

Is this just a NATO exercise or is there something going on that we don't know about? Perhaps in connection with the London bombings? Because they happened the exact same time that this all started.

You might consider posting a thought on 'when do we get our liberties back'
Your threads share something in common..

Dallas

Originally posted by Dallas

You might consider posting a thought on 'when do we get our liberties back'
Your threads share something in common..

Dallas

Um, do they? I looked over that thread and as far as I could tell, apart from a brief mention of the bomber suspect being shot, it has nothing to do with this.

No offense intended but, it'd be nice if, you know, you'd also add something to this discussion too.

I'm in the U.S., so I don't know about it personally, but I'd bet it's due to the terrorist bombings. We had the same sort of stuff going on here in New York (where I am) after 9/11.

Your right. I should add something to this discussion and I apologize.
The UK can expect much more serious military notice since 7/7.

The actions of your security services have been fruitful and will probably spawn video surveilance in other Countries too.

What the British security services have done so rapidly really has my interest in how it was accomplished so fast and hopefully to an end.

Dallas

Originally posted by Universal Indicator
Well, like the title says, there's been some very odd things happening where I am, and I've an inside contact who's telling me that this is not isolated to just my area, so I'll be interested to see what other UK ATSers have to say about this too.

Whereabouts are you in the UK?

They could be training exercises, I suppose , but for what?

Universal Indicator.....

Which part of the country are you in? I'm located in the NW

Dallas,

Yeah, I agree with the rapidity of the actions against the bombers, it seems to have galvanised countries across the world into doing something, much more than say the Madrid bombings or the bombings in France.

Why did it take the UK to be bombed for this to happen?

Spacemunkey

Excellent question spacemunkey. But I have no answer, no thought that would even sound near good. But I surely respect the British Government. I'm actually sorry any death and destruction happened in Britain - friendly people and one of the oldest Coutries.

Dallas

I haven't noticed much of a military presence but defaintly have seen more police patrolling the streets. I'm from the Midlands and Broad Street (the main street of clubs in Birmingham) has been packed with police, plain clothed and uniformed, usually armed.

I am certain that this is just down to the 7/7 incident and everyone is just making sure we are prepared.

I am in the Southwest, so my local airbase would be St Mawgan. (Rumour has it Aurora has been there, but that's another story)

I too find it interesting how stunningly quickly these terrorists were taken down. And I think it will send a message to all the would be terrorists. Moreover, this may mark the beginning of a new way to fight terrorism, and it gives me renewed optimism that I'll see the end of the war on terror in my lifetime.

I used to consider "big brother" to be an invasion of my privacy but now I really am glad it is there, seeing how efficiently it seems to cope with such situations.

If there's anything untoward going on it's odd it'd take place in Cornwall at the height of the holiday season......

Which strongly suggests it's just routine training.

okay seem like my country too feel the same like in london,even here thought we dont have any explosion but the BRITISH COLLOBORATORS mean my goverment feel the scared because they sale out one of the AFRICAN BLACK MAN to the USA and they extradic that man to USA the reason is
that man is black label by the FBI as one of the terrorist.who joint strike WTC 9/11 cases.
what a pity to that man

Pssst i dont agreed about this actually

Dunno exactly what your getting across but if you want another chance to feel equality 'cause your not happy where you are, perhaps you might try Canada?
Black, Yellow, Red or White it seems to me it's all the same - people.

Dallas

All of our local mainline train and airports have been put on heightened states of alert this week.

This is specifically in the NE area - stations in Cumbria such as Carlisle etc are not affected apparently.

TPTB say there is no evidence of a specific threat but it seems a bit odd that the transport links are put on high alert the day after two men were taken off a GNER Train from the region to Kings X (apparently after a tipoff by two off duty Scotland Yard officers travelling on the train.) . The men were later let go and allowed to continue their journey but somehow ....

It also seems odd that all the police forces in the region allowed their armed patrol officers to be filmed (albeit with no faces being shown) apart from the Northumbria force. Which seems odd given that they are patrolling in a very public area .

Originally posted by Essan
If there's anything untoward going on it's odd it'd take place in Cornwall at the height of the holiday season......

Which strongly suggests it's just routine training.

What's so routine about beaching landing craft on a beach full of holiday makers, and having F15s doing flybys overhead?

RAF St Mawgan is a major airbase. During the cold war, it was one of the few places that Vulcan XL391 bombers were stationed. So surely it follows logic that it would go absolutely haywire during a terrorist whatsname?

To be honest I think it's more odd that an excersize would take place during a holiday season.

There are training exercises all year round, whats so strange about this? I think you are just reading more into it than there is which is understandable given the recent events.

For instance I work in poole, the SBS are at the local marines base and they train with landing craft locally all year round, they practice storming the ferries as they are leaving the harbour so I see nothing strange in this. As far as I am aware the RAF dont have any F15 do they? maybe wrong about that but it would suggest a joint UK/US exercise and nothing more

I’m near enough to RAF Fairford to be able to see the armaments on the underside of a B-52 as they fly in. I’ve also heard U2’s go in late at night.

Anyway, some local stations have had police presence for the last week or so since bodged attack in London. While I am not knocking the idea of more police presence, I do have to ask the question ‘Wouldn’t we all be safer if we had this level of policing all the time?’

Originally posted by The Director
Anyway, some local stations have had police presence for the last week or so since bodged attack in London. While I am not knocking the idea of more police presence, I do have to ask the question ‘Wouldn’t we all be safer if we had this level of policing all the time?’

same here in poole, we've had several security alerts there. We've had them for years from irish terrorist what with the SBS here and animal extremist terrorists (they used to be a big chemical company here but it's moved away now and there are several big companies with links (financial or otherwise) to animal testing labs.

It's strange but for the 2 or 3 weeks before the bombings I had noticed a lot of police on the streets and patrolling in cars than usual? You hardly ever see a police car in my town (only got 2 coppers there and the station only opens part-time!).