Army to guard Heathrow?

[AonP]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=533341&in_page_id=1770&ito=1490

[helimarshaller]

But will they be allowed to where uniform?:ugh:

[GPMG]

I like to see the JSP's for that role, I doubt it will happen but I wouldn't like to be the guy looking down the SUSAT deciding whether the target is attempting to blow up something / shoot someone or just hang up an anti seal clubbing banner. Why does the army have to pick up the tab for a private firms inability to do it's job.

[airborne_artist]

Agree with GPMG - imagine the problems writing the Yellow Card. Putting a lad with an SA80 every 15m along the fence is one way of doing it, but the alternative is building a better perimeter security barrier, which isn't that hard, despite what people think.

I think the Mail is flying a kite, to be honest.

[GIATT]

Putting a lad with an SA80 every 15m along the fence is one way of doing it

Didn't think there were that many spare soldiers

[ShyTorque]

Probably just as many Taliban down that part of the world these days.... :ooh:

[Tigs2]

So does that mean that our airport taxes due to BAA would be decreased substanialiy as we are not paying them for a large element of airport security??

[airborne_artist]

Didn't think there were that many spare soldiersThere are absolutely no spare soldiers, so much so that two TA battalions have had to be mobilised to ensure we have troops for Kosovo.

The TA HSF has been disbanded, and as key point installation guarding was their role they'd have been ideal...., if a tad bored.

BAA need to pull their fingers out of their @rse and get prepared for plenty more incursions by plonkers, climate/runway demonstrators and those with uglier intentions. They should have seen it coming.

[OHP 15M]

Just to add a bit of military aviation to this thread, why not patrol the airfield with Apaches to act as a deterent and, if required, perform some top level 'neutralisation' :ok:

[minigundiplomat]

Despite the Mail's article, it is reassuring that BAA's Chief executive earned over £2 Million last year.

[ZH875]

Despite the Mail's article, it is reassuring that BAA's Chief executive earned over £2 Million last year.

He was paid over £2 Million, but did he earn it?

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

Even if you electrified the thing (not allowed), a fence will only delay someone from getting in; it won't stop them. How about a double fence with some big FO dogs (with ear defenders) roaming between?

[Always a Sapper]

Even if you electrified the thing (not allowed), a fence will only delay someone from getting in; it won't stop them. How about a double fence with some big FO dogs (with ear defenders) roaming between?

Dont let the pooch'es roam free all the time... keep em hungry and hidden :E .... the fun is in releasing once the chav's are trapped between the fence's..... :D:D:D

[barnstormer1968]

Although a better fence (such as the Israeli Innofence type of security fence) would be a good start, it seems it's quite easy to get on to the tarmac as a regular passenger (read, nuisance).
Maybe if we hadn't treated the global warming protesters so softly, then this latest thing may not have happened.
As an aside (thread creep), I have just been watching my local news, and it seems that the local Royal Marine reserves, had not been paid this year, due to an admin error (even though some are due to go to Afghanistan soon. Is this noo labours version of British forces being volunteers.
Barnstormer1968:ugh:

[Beatriz Fontana]

Quoting the Daily [hate] Mail??

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!

Sorry, my sides hurt now. You really think that their story is true?

[25thID]

Deploy chemical lasers. With a little luck there will never be any evidence of an intruder.

[Dan D'air]

Deploy chemical lasers.

You are quite right. There is even a name for such a special weapons programme. It is to be called the Alan Parsons Project.

[Geezers of Nazareth]

As I work at Heathrow, maybe I can offer a little advice to anyone wishing to get airside without the requisite ID Card or ticket/boarding pass ...

(ooh, hang, black car outside, dooorbell ringing ...)


Anyway ...

Pretty much the whole of the perimiter fence is a simple chain-link fence with barbed-wire on top. Assuming that you can climb the fence and get over the top of the barbed-wire, all you have to do is to drop down to the grass below, and go 'walkabout'.
There are CCTV cameras at various places, so any intrusion is usually monitored.

So why aren't there a few rolls of barbed-wire/concertina-wire/razor-wire set-up just a few metres inside the permiter-fence? In fact, why not put one adjacent to the fence on the inside, so that anyone who does manage to climb over gets snared as they drop from the top?

How much does a roll of razor-wire cost. I'm sure it would cost less than £2 million, the amount that you and I paid the Chief Exec last year.

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

Why go over a fence when it's so easy to go through it? We are back to delay not prevent.

[Double Zero]

Rolls of razor-wire, any TA people still going ( given a CLEAR set of R of E ) and more night-capable cameras around would seem like just a start...the chap in the last incident seems to have been a random nut - sorry that's not very PC but anyway - what if he hadn't been...

Probably inside the minimum range of a Stinger, but an RPG would have been an unpleasant beginning to one's holiday - this is where the much maligned 'spotters ( and no I'm not one ) are very much a benefit to our side and to be encouraged - sort out bona fide ones and give them tours of the aircraft etc, and a direct security number to call - if necessary tell them there's a Concorde test flight coming in sometime !!!

Anything except rely on any version of the police " sorry I shot you repeatedly but you WERE reaching for a notebook - now how's my full pension coming along ? " - when I worked at test ranges the guards were armed Military Police, and a regiment of regular soldiers were living rough, unseen, in the bushes.

Considering the change of priorities, I would hope they ( if not busy in Afghanistan ) might be on their way to various airports...

[AliasBoris]

Deploy rolls of razor wire at the foot of the chain-link fence ???? :confused:

Good grief, what about the 'elf & safety' of anybody who manages to scale the chain-link fence and injures their private parts when getting entangled in the razor stuff ???? :=

Be reasonable :mad::mad::mad::mad:

[starbright]

Last time I returned from the sandpit, on arrival at Brize, I was told in no uncertain terms that military personnel can wear uniform at Heathrow. (Might upset the locals!?!) It would be interesting guarding the place when Civpol are trying to arrest you for wearing military uniform:ugh:.

[SirToppamHat]

Starbright

Que???

[FrogPrince]

Ah, the HSF. (My first ever TA exercise was Brave Defender, pitching up as a shot-down Russian pilot to KP's defended by the HSF, amongst others...).

If we had a Home Commitment-only TA/RAuxAF/RNR established to guard / patrol these entry points to the UK, do Ppruners think would there be a longer line of volunteers queuing up to join the reserves or would it only appeal to the xenophobics?

Ticks the boxes for active citizenship, gets more people in uniform and aware of the modus operandi of the armed forces and would probably be much cheaper than Group 4.... Might get a reasonable proportion transferring over to Full Commitment.

Or is this just pie in the sky??

[airborne_artist]

FrogP - you'd end up with a lot of Walts who like the whole uniform = power thing.

[Thelma Viaduct]

"FrogP - you'd end up with a lot of Walts who like the whole uniform = power thing."

Sounds like the police to me. :cool:

[Chalkstripe]

hmm - article states that it was a Sri Lankan Asylum seeker - who had broken into Heathrow.

Does that mean he was trying to get back out of this fine and sceptred isle?

[MarkD]

Heathrow is a civil aerodrome - why have the military guard it? Why not have the plods mooching around the terminal with HKs or whatever take a walk around the grounds?

The first unwashed lout shot either accidentally or deliberately by HM Forces at LHR would make the de Menezes incident look trivial.