Crab:
We don't have to comply with the ANO but we do so out of respect for the impact that military training could have on the public if we did it the way some other Armed Forces in the world might.
Tell that to people who ride horses.
Crab - you are so far off beam on this one. You don't live in London air traffic as a controller - AlanM does and he speaks the truth. We all respect our military - but there is a limit to their bad behaviour when it is not necessary.
Batting around London beneath standard operating altitudes, hammering Chinooks through London in the dead of night - all fine if there is a real reason. But there wasn't.
London operators in the civilian world are under a lot of pressure to reduce noise - but they aren't the ones causing the problems. We have a police ASU which has chosen to operate noisy machines 24/7 often on night missions with little useful purpose. And we have a military who are choosing to ignore the ANO and the published standards.
And to refuse a direct routing offered is just plain daft if speed was the need.