So did anyone else feel the boom

[Totumpole]

RAF in the skies, Royal Marines Commando's on the Thames and Soldiers in the streets, hopefully they will be stood down all the time, lert's hope so anyway.

SBS are oeprating out of th Thames too, have a multimillion£ HQ somewhere on the canals around olympic city. Apparently one of the reasons they chose the site are the canals - gives maximal response time to anti-terrorist troops regardless of traffic. Good idea me thinks.

 

[Tengu]

Yes, and cost effective too.

Notice I am not against millitary spending, as such, just not needful spending.

 

[EdS]

All this activity just leaves nice soft targets like - every other big city. That is where the smart money would hit to cause maximum panic

 

[ged]

SBS are oeprating out of th Thames too, have a multimillion£ HQ somewhere on the canals around olympic city. Apparently one of the reasons they chose the site are the canals ...

It's a shame we aren't still using the canals. One horsepower pulling a hundred tonnes of cargo instead of five hundred horsepower pulling twenty tonnes.

 

[udamiano]

yes heard it, was in the woods, thought something had blown up

 

[PeterH]

I was doing my mountain leader in early summer '82 and saw some spectacular sights. There was a cave leader course from the same base, they returned early and ashen one day ...... a Vulcan on combat practice flight had overflown them ~~~~~ BOOM ~~~~ when they were best part of a mile down a system 300ft deep!

 

[Retired Member southey]

It's a shame we aren't still using the canals. One horsepower pulling a hundred tonnes of cargo instead of five hundred horsepower pulling twenty tonnes.

Absolutely! I would add a reinstatement of all the branch lines with electrification over head too. to me it's a pretty decent way to remove most traffic from the roads.

 

[wattsy]

Typhoons are the dogs danglies for air superiority, and will no doubt have clearance to remove any airborne threat posed to the event. Air to Air missiles will make short work of an airliner/small aircraft flying in a manner to be treated as a threat.

(cough) F22, F35, F15 (cough)

 

[ged]

(cough) F22, F35, F15 (cough)

And (cough) at 50,000 feet the Avro Vulcan can out-manoeuvre all of them.

 

[wingstoo]

F22, F35, F15 nice planes...Just that as they are US planes they probably won't work under 10,000ft

 

[sapper1]

F22, F35, F15 nice planes...Just that as they are US planes they probably won't work under 10,000ft

And british pilots think 100 feet is high altitude flying.I was on Sailsbury plain once and was underneath a couple of plane doing nap of the earth flying.You have to see it to believe it can be done that low.I swear if the landing gear was down they would have been driving not flying.

 

[santaman2000]

F22, F35, F15 nice planes...Just that as they are US planes they probably won't work under 10,000ft

Yep. That's the philosophy for fighter pilots: "No medals under 30,000 ft. and no promotions below 10,000 ft."

But oddly the F111 was/is still the only aircraft (fighter aircraft anyway) capable of flying tree level at mach 2.

 

[Bazzworx]

Found out today that it was a chap I know whos helicopter caused the alarm, he was flying back from Aintree to Buckland Newton when his transponder became faulty and sent out the distress message. He was back home having dinner when the MOD phoned him asking where he and his chopper were. For those interested it was a Westland Gazelle.

 

[789987]

realistically how effective are fighter planes going to be above the urban sprawl that is london? what are they actually going to do? anything that gets shot down will destroy whatever is unfortunate enough to be underneath it at the time.

distinct element of fantasy about the whole affair

 

[BillyBlade]

The fighter aircraft are there to tackle the issue long before anything gets to the urban sprawl. Dont forget things happen very quickly at altitude. It's not the first time I've looked at London from the south coast as I'm running the checklist.

Regards whats supersonic at the treetops. Aardvark will do 1.2mach, not 2, though it's not, and never has been, a fighter. It simply got the 'F' desig as it was born from the debacle that was TFX and it carried the funding over. It has never operationally been a fighter, always a mud mover. The cancelled B desig was capable of carrying the Phoenix missile, but that aircraft was cancelled. We all know where that missile and the radar that guided it went though, so that worked out ok in the end.

If we're bending the rules a little, the F3 Tornado (pre restrictions) would shuffle away from the 'vark at treetop height on full chat. Mate who was a backseater on one tells substantiated claims of serious speeds when clean. There is a small, small club out there (that he is not a member of) that have claim on four digit IAS at oil rig height over the sea.

However, considering the 111 first got air under it's bum in '64/'65? and the F3 is a child of the 80's, kudos to the team at NASA that sorted out the inlets on the 111 and made it the aircraft it became.

 

[Bazzworx]

They will intercept you way before London, as a hot air balloon pilot we have been given the restricted airspace maps for London and Portland they reach far and wide. If you enter the air space without permission you will be greeted by either a Puma helicopter or a Typhoon if you don't respond to them you WILL be shot down, they will first do a fly by, then release flares with possibly a 'follow me' sign if its the Puma. Then if you still do not respond you will be shot down. Just found this link http://www.rin.org.uk/Uploadedpdfs/ItemAttachments/1220-web-2.pdf

 

[wingstoo]

I guess it depends if the "target" is actually over the city at the time, the idea is to act as a deterant to any group who might think about an arial attack on either the capital or any other place.


Having aircraft in the air isn't just about eliminating targets by hopefully preventing them trying in the first place.


Better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

 

[sapper1]

I doesn't matter where the shot down plane lands,just as long as it's not where they were aiming to land.The headline stating a plane was shot down is better than the one that reads plane hits target.

 

[nuggets]

I hope there ain,t going to be a fuel strike before the olympics !! Can,t see any of them aircraft going any where with out fuel !!

 

[789987]

im waiting for the government to introduce a "battle terror tax". will have more support than the fuel duties. especially if theres military hardware named in the advert.