Military AircrewA forum for the professionals who fly the non-civilian hardware, and the backroom boys and girls without whom nothing would leave the ground. Army, Navy and Airforces of the World, all equally welcome here.
I have dashed over here, in response to a question asked by one of our grounded brethren on ARRSE, (an entertaining place BTW), about the effects of a Rapier shoot down on a large civilian passenger aircraft over London.
Surely a Raper wouldn't do more than knock a bit of a wing off or what have you, it would probably cause less harm to let such an attack run to its conclusion.
Kudos to the first person to suggest that Boeing/Airbus is better able to survive such a terrible thing, or not.
Sorry for the facetiousness in my topic, I mean no ill.
I would class the Foil as more of a training round and would therefore hope that we have progressed beyond that stage prior to the Olympics starting and us potentially needing to use it in anger.
Out of the sabre and epee, I guess it all depends what you want to do. The sabre is more flexible in terms of target, the epee more flexbile in terms of full weapons effect. The epee has what you would describe as more of an impact fuse whilst the sabre is a bit more of a proximity weapon and you get to have a good slash around in the hope of hitting something. I guess it all depends what you want the headlines to read the next morning!
Last edited by Melchett01; 30th Jun 2012 at 23:36.
Aircraft with say 300 people on board aimed at stadium with about 80,000 capacity.
Bit of a no brainer to say bringing it down anywhere in suburban London except a football stadium would be a least worse option at least on the collateral damage front ?
There's an old 70's book called SAM7 by Richard Cox about the effect of an airliner being brought down in central London. Cannot imagine casualties in the suburbs would be near 80,000 though, but I have no idea really.
Agree with Phil9560 - discussions about GBAD are not a topic for an open forum. However, anyone who (a) has an 'O'-level knowledge of physics and (b) reads the Richard Cox book already cited should be able to work it out for themself.
I'm under the impression that displaying this equipment and the attendant publicity is for the attention of the Great Unwashed, be they from the East End or indeed points much further East.
If a missile (ground or air launched) brought down an airliner just think of the lawsuits and possible criminal trials!
It could (and would) be argued that - it might not have crashed if left alone, it would not have crashed where it did, the passengers and crew were unlawfully killed by the missile.
So the government would be liable liable for all the costs, injuries, etc and whoever launched could be prosecuted for murder and/ or manslaughter.
Lawsuits would be launched in many countries by the relatives of those killed or injured as well as by the aircraft owners and insurance companies.
The threat of death would not deter terrorists and they would be delighted if the authorities scored an own goal!
via Diversion to a suitable base where it would be necessary to shelter them in quarters 
