London Olympics: Army deploy missiles on residential apartment blocks
THE London Olympics is coming, and on the roofs of residential apartment blocks in the east of London the military are placing Ground Based Air Defence systems consisting of ground rapier units and the smaller High Velocity Missile systems. These will be manned 24/7 by armed soldiers. Bet that makes the residents below feel much safer.
Residents like Brian Wheelan, who tweets the leaflet. He says:
“Just got a leaflet through the door saying the army are putting missiles on my roof during Olympics. For context, I live in a private gated development (yuppie, I know) near the Olympics site. At no point were residents met with over this.”
He adds that the building was “recently struck by lightning: and:
“This is to be located on a tower that is currently shut because of falling debris, in a private development. Mental.”
Is it?
London is being militarised:
- HMS OCEAN, the largest ship in the Royal Navy’s fleet, which will be berthed in the Thames at Greenwich, providing logistics support, accommodation and a helicopter landing site;
- Typhoon jets, stationed temporarily at RAF Northolt in London and helicopters, likely to be Puma and Lynx, operating from HMS OCEAN to support airspace security;
Chances are that Brian’s got one of these on his roof:
The Starstreak HVM (High Velocity Missile) is designed to counter threats from very high performance, low-flying aircraft and fast ‘pop-up’ strikes by helicopter attacks. The missile, which travels at more than three times the speed of sound, uses a system of three dart-like projectiles, allowing multiple hits on the target. HVM can be fired from the shoulder, from a lightweight multiple launcher or from the Stormer armoured vehicle.
Detachment 4
Missile range Min. 1,500 m
Max. 5,500 m
Flight time 8 seconds
Guidance Semi-Automatic Line of Sight
Beam Riding
Time into action SP – less than 10 seconds to
10 minutes. LML – 2 minutes.
Single missile – less than 10 seconds
Ceiling 1,000 m
Missile speed Mach 3
See it in action on the video below.
Or he might have a Rapier:
Rapier Field Standard C is a technologically advanced Short-Range Air Defence System (SHORAD). It is a 24-hour, all-weather guided weapon system with a primary role of providing limited area Air Defence (AD) cover against fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) and cruise missiles. It has the capability of engaging two targets at once. Rapier FSC is compact, mobile and air portable, making it suitable for worldwide operations.
Missile length 2.35 m
Missile diameter 0.133 m
Missile range 500 m (max.) to 8 m (min.)
Motor Solid fuelled
Missile speed Mach 2+
Launch weight 42 kg
Radar height 3.37 m (in action)
Radar range 16 km
Radar weight 243 kg
Anything to worry about?
Well, the enemy might want to take out the position before it’s fire on..
Posted: 28th, April 2012 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
