Missiles

Sorry for the lack of posts. Holidays and work all at once. No excuse I know, and I was sad to miss the Race for Life.

Rachel writes:

I heard that on Tuesday last week (3 July) Blackheath councillors had a meeting with constituents attended by a representative from the Olympics police, to hear/answer their concerns about the Olympics. Could I ask please if this meeting was written up and reported anywhere in a newspaper or on the web? Did anyone tweet from the meeting?

The South African Times thinks that “middle class leafy Blackheath” is far less concerned about the missiles than Bow. I beg to differ.

I see that there’s till no advertising on the station’s new wobbly bridge. Yet…

UPDATE:
Councillor Kevin Bonavia replied:

In answer to Rachel’s question about what happened at the Blackheath Assembly meeting on 3 July, we had a return visit from the MOD and Metropolitan Police Olympics liaison officers, who gave a presentation and took questions from residents. I don’t have a full note of everything that was said, but we were given copies of the attached leaflet for Blackheath residents as prepared by the MOD. The leaflet gives much more detailed information than that contained in the earlier version circulated back in March. In particular, it provides a response to my commonly shared concern about security of the site, namely that it will be protected by armed police in addition to MOD personnel. Please also note the contact details if there any questions that fall outside the leaflet.

MOD Missiles Leaflet (pdf)

The Missile Hotline is 07879 603506. They say that you can leave a message and a representative of the Ministry of Defence will call you back. Alternatively, you can email LONDIST-MoDOlympicsEnquiries@mod.uk

Come and consult with the missiles

As currently being reported on the Blackheath Society’s site, the MoD will be holding a touchy-feely “come and look at our missiles day” on May 4th.

As part of a National exercise for Olympic security from May 2nd – May 10th, a Ground Based Air Defence Unit will operate on Blackheath from 2nd May.    Residents are invited to meet the team on 4th May from 16.00 – 19.000.   These timings are subject to change.

See their very exciting website called Operation Olympics Defence Support to London 2012.  Not Operation Appease The US with a Frankly Unworkable Security Plan.  Yay for the Olympics.  What utter nonsense.

See other missile-madness related stories from this blog.

PS – Liked Ed’s comment on the Big Screen story:

Will the big screen show the missile launches too?

Moron missiles

I was wondering…

What would a world-renowned security expert make of the plans to arm Blackheath with missiles?

So I emailed him:

I’m a big fan of your security essays, and subscribe to your weekly Crypto-gram.

The UK government has recently decided to place surface to air
missiles in my local park, to protect us against terrorist attacks
during the Olympics.

I was wondering if you’d be interested in writing something about this
as a tactic to increase security. Does it matter if the missiles are
loaded? Is it the right thing to do? etc etc..

Here’s the reply:

Sounds like a dumb idea to me.

Short and to the point. We always protect against the previous terror threat. See this essay, for example:

Voting for missile defense makes for better campaigning than increasing intelligence funding. Elected officials want to do something visible, even if it turns out to be ineffective.

Something to ask Heidi Alexander on her trip around the houses today:

A nice day for #labourdoorstep. Will be knocking on doors in Blackheath with @kevinbonavia later.

— Heidi Alexander (@heidi_mp) March 18, 2012

Leaflet from the MoD on missiles

Councillor Chris Maines has forwarded the information leaflet from the MoD, explaining the test.

MoD leaflet about the Olympics Rapier missile testing (PDF)

Below is the text from the PDF.

How are the Armed Forces contributing to the Olympics?
When there is a significant event in the UK, the Civil Authorities seek assistance from the Armed Forces and the Olympics is no different.
As part of the Military Assistance to the Civil Authorities, the Armed Forces are assisting the Police with security for the Olympics

Why are we here?
We are running an exercise locally to test the sensors and communications on our Air Defence Systems which might be used to support the police-led security operation for the Olympics 2012.
As part of our ongoing planning, we are testing the equipment to make sure that, if it is used, it will work effectively in this environment and we will ensure any impact to the local community is noted and addressed.

Why is the military doing this?
The military is providing support to the police security plan for the Olympics, in London and across the UK. We need to make sure our equipment works.

Why has this location been chosen?
This site provides one of the best locations in London for this equipment, should it be decided to deploy it for the Olympics.

Does that mean we are a target?
No. It is not being considered for deployment in response to any specific threat. The equipment has a range of capabilities including its radar and it will represent a powerful deterrent.

Is the equipment safe?
There is no danger to the public from today’s testing.
Will it affect my mobile telephone or my TV network? We have carried out careful planning to make sure it should not interfere with your TV or mobile reception and are confident that this will not occur. Our testing today will confirm this.
What does HVM (the High Velocity Missile) do? HVM is a piece of equipment that we use to protect ourselves against hostile aircraft and helicopters.

What does Rapier do?
The Rapier system can track aircraft using its sensors and if necessary deter an attack from the air.

Why are you testing it without missiles?
We don’t need missiles when we test the sensors and communications systems.

How long will it be here for?
We will only be here for a few hours.

Will you be coming back?
It is probable that we will come back for some further testing or exercising. We will keep local Councils and landowners informed.

Remember, blowing things out of the sky is defence. Not a colossal waste of time and money. And nothing to worry your pretty heads about.

Blackheath society’s response to the missile crisis

Response from the Blackheath Society

Blackheath has been awash with rumours that air defence missiles will be placed on the Heath to protect the capital during the Olympics.
To the credit of our Lewisham Councillors, security services personnel were brought in to give a briefing to the Blackheath Assembly on 13 March.

Blackheath is one of six sites being evaluated for a possible missile defence system for the duration of the Olympics and some radar equipment was tested on the Heath last week.

We understand that either all six will be chosen, or none. The Blackheath site is opposite Holly Hedge House, the police base for the Olympics. Oxleas Wood is another possible site.

We were told that a final decision as to whether to deploy the system would be made in the early summer and a further test visit is possible.

Our concern is that, if it is decided to go ahead any installation should be as small as possible, especially given the other uses of the Heath by the Olympics already planned.
The security services seemed at pains to acknowledge this, and further consultation was promised.

We await further news.

Howard Shields
Chairman

So now we know where.
My concern isn’t with the the size of the missiles, but the fact that they are used for blowing things up.
Did any of the planning documents mention a missile base?

Missile ranges

If the MoD site is wrong, and Wikipedia is right, then the actual range of a Rapier missile on Blackheath is 6.8km, not 500m (spotted by @ripienaar).

Made using http://obeattie.github.com/gmaps-radius/

GBAD and other acronyms

Response from Heidi Alexander to the Blackheath Missile Crisis:

Dear Blackheath Bugle,

Heidi has asked me to paste below a briefing note which I hope will answer the questions you raised in your blog post. She won’t be able to be at the Blackheath Assembly tonight because of votes in Parliament on the Health and Social Care Bill but Kevin Bonavia will have copies of the briefing to distribute this evening.

If anybody has any comments or questions about the briefing note it would be really helpful if they could be sent direct to Heidi with their postal address included.

Jamie Milne – Office Manager

London 2012 – Possible Military Defence Arrangements – Blackheath

I am sorry not to be able to attend the Blackheath Local Assembly this evening. The House of Commons is debating the Health & Social Care Bill this afternoon and I need to be present in Parliament to express my opposition to the Government’s proposals at the vote.

I know that many people have questions about the recent news that the Ministry of Defence (the MoD) are considering the use of Blackheath as part of their air security plan for the Olympics. They are exploring using Blackheath as a location for a Ground Based Air Defence System (GBAD).