Ground to Air missiles on Fred Wigg Tower, Leytonstone?

[Condover]

I fully understand the residents concerns and I may be am probably being dense but what are they for?

Presumably for shooting down any rogue aircraft heading towards the stadium, but really, over London?

it's odd isn't it, maybe they would rather shooting a plane to come down over leyton rather than the olympic site

I think my sister is quite pleased she's moved out of Leyton now.

That's exactly right. The idea is to make sure that in an emergency the heavily fuel laden jet crashes into a poor persons house rather than the rich persons stadium!

I'm not sure how the cloudpuncher - not wishing to be prejudicial but they're never the brightest peanuts in the turd - with (presumably) a Rapier system is supposed to be able to tell the difference between a hijacked plane and a regular one but assuming they pick the right plane to target, the plan would be to bring it down anywhere but over the Olympic site.

It strikes me as more security theatre than actual security. Shooting down a plane over any part of London would be catastrophic, and I would have expected the real security to be elsewhere.

I heard it explained this morning that ground to air missiles would be used if something like a slow-moving aircraft presented a threat. They can't take them out with a jet fighter, apparently. Jet fighters would be scrambled for faster moving, longer-range threats and try to take them out over the channel rather than the city.

I found this comment on another site:

These missles are only going to be there as a last resort measure anyway. Firstly, there's going to be restricted airspace around the olympic zone with a list of rules to comply with. Flight plans will have to be submitted in advance and an authorisation code given. Air traffic controll will be interregating everything in the controlled zone and will have Typhoons and helicopters on standby to intercept them. Intercepts will be able to speak with pilots by radio, buzz aircraft, and do flyboy type things to guide them away from the zone and get them to land for a chat. They'll have rules for engagement too. All legimate pilots will know what's what, and they'll even be able to get a free chart of the zone too. The Typhoons will be able to cover the South coast venues too from their London base. So all in all there'll be less aircraft in the sky over the olympic zone than usuall. So what will there be for those missiles to do? Basically it will just be a cushy duty for whoever it is that looks after them. If I wasn't anti-gambling, I'd wager these missiles will not be required during the games.

Any suspicious aircraft would probably be guided out to sea prior to engagement.
From central London to North Sea is only a couple of minutes flying time.

tbh, if I was living in a building with missiles on top, I would want to be relocated as well.

There will also be missile batteries in Lewisham, Blackheath, New Cross and Shooters Hill - just so you know.
www.nogoe2012.com/CampaignNews.html#120616EmergencyMeasures
scroll down to May 7th
and for all those who thought Greenwich Park was a Royal Park, open to the Public, think again
www.nogoe2012.com/CampaignNews.html#120707ParkPrivatised

This is simply about keeping options open. Nobody is going to actually use them. No seriously they won't. It's like the Olympic equivalent of a nuclear deterrent. The whole point is that they are there to deter, not to be used.

If there are any unidentified planes, they will be intercepted far before they reach London. Because once they do reach London then the PM has two shit choices.

1. Shoot the plane down, kill everyone aboard and a few thousand people who will be injured/killed by the falling debris.

2. Don't shoot the plane down, let the plane crash killing everyone aboard and an entire stadium of people.

But can you imagine the uproar if a plane did break through the restricted airspace and there wasn't any missiles in place!?!?!? Regardless of whether or not they'd have been used, the press would have a field day.

As for mounting them on your building. Actually personally I'd be incredibly happy to have them on my building. Why? Because the fact they are there means that the debris is practically guaranteed not to be over your building. The missiles will be fired from the building which means they will hit the plane.....elsewhere.

Plus the fact you have erm missiles on your roof will presumably mean you will have soldiers guarding the are around them. That means better security.

niceguy
or it makes your building an uber target for a different sort of attack - hostage taking etc.
thanks but no thanks
if a plane gets shot down over Blackheath it will crash into Greenwich Park (tens of thousands of people watching the geegees) or Canary Wharf (tens of thousands of people ...). JUST what London needs.

I wonder whether it's to help the government sell more arms to other countries.

Rubbish. If you are a terrorist and want to make a big statement, your target is where lots of people are such as the stadium, the underground etc.

What you wouldn't do is try to attack a block of flats where you know a phlanx of heavily armed soldiers are.

Terrorists are willing to die for their cause but it doesn't mean they are stupid.

I agree about the impact of the debris. But like I said earlier, having them gives the PM options. Without them he has less.

Thankfully I doubt it will ever come to it.

I think what Niceguy says is very reassuring. However, I would hate hate hate to have these things on my roof and to go through security checks in order to get to my own front door. I can't bear to think of it, actually, and my heart really does go out to the people living there.

Let's hope it is just security theatre. Frightening to discover the army can just take over your home without a by-your-leave, though.

niceguy
you seem to trust LOCOG and the PM to make the best decisions.
sadly you may be in a minority

Presumably it makes it a target as it is a pile of armaments and if you can make them go BANG then you get a much bigger BANG than whatever you use to set them off would have made.

Or am I missing something.

Heavily armed soldiers will still die if a plane crash lands into their building. The soldiers won't put terrorists off crashing a plane into Fred Wigg Tower. As Sardine says, the armaments will make the kind of big explosion terrorists like. Sadly the building is the home of ordinary civilians in a residential area. Not the sort of place where anyone should be storing weapons, let alone turning it into a military base. When despots do that kind of thing, we accuse them of using civilians as a shield. Amazing that that kind of thing is suddenly OK in our country.

If the government really gave a toss about public safety, they'd offer the residents alternative accommodation during the military occupation.

"When despots do that kind of thing, we accuse them of using civilians as a shield."

That is exactly what I said to DH last night!

On the news these kinds of things are usually being lugged around on some kind of armoured vehicle. That makes more sense surely than putting them in an obvious stationary position? Shouldn't they have them scattered around armoured vehicles disguised as vans or something? This idea of putting them on top of an occupied block of flats is simply bananas IMO.

What the residents should do is rent out their apartments to the bankers for the duration of the games.