UK at risk from sea-borne attack, says Commons Defence Ctee
 

BBC NEWS | Politics | UK 'at risk of sea-borne attack'

Given the length of coastline, it's hardly going to be possible to police it just from the surface. Some kind of air component would be needed surely?

A job for Dad's Army. Bring back the Home Guard - hurrah!! "Carry on Captain Mainwaring"

Time to re-instate Operation Banquet?

Joking aside, a full LPG or LNG tanker is - in effect - a 50,000 Tonne Fuel Air Explosive bomb. Stand well back!

There is already a motley collection of coastguard and contract aircraft which carry out sporadic surveillance - but only rather half-heartedly. As the article suggests, there needs to be a centralised structure to coordinate the various assets.

The Italians recently identified a similar issue - they too have a long coastline to patrol and the job currently shared between navy, guardia di finanza, and coastguard, with lots of different aircraft. They've started a process to bring the assets under a central coordination centre. They're also looking at DA42 MPP with look-down radar as a cheap solution with long range and endurance.

German battleships shelled Scarboro during W.W 1 , and some towns further up the N.E coast. The recruiting offices had long queues outside the following day.

Ah yes, a potential 50kT detonation in Milford Haven.

Any other improvements on the horizon?

If I'm not mistaken we currently use Nimrods and 'other' aircraft & platforms, a true case of combined forces ?

I can say from experience, approaching the Southern English coast at night in my little - one might think stealthy - sailing boat with no lights on ( the battery was u/s ) we soon got hovered over by an equally unlit Lynx.

I'm always surprised when yachties with tall masts - stand by for the ooh er, missus comments - are asked to buy ever more expensive radar reflectors, while in WWII a U-Boat's periscope was recognisable ; and radar is of course not the only sensor available.

And do the rest of the C3I, too. No good having the assets if they don't know what to look out for, and if their reports just get dumped on a guy/gal who can't assess them.

RAF Coastal Command perhaps :)

Interesting. I attended a security briefing two weeks back. Quite boring until they started passing out IEDs. However their view, it was at a local sea port, was that the maritime threat to the UK was next to non-existent. They rejected the idea that a ship might be hijacked, equipped as a bomb, and then driven into a port.

They also suggested that Arabs would get sea sick and be unable to sail a ship from the Indian Ocean. I, and a number of port maritime officials were greatly reassured by the brief.

Ermmmm, I think that might just be called the Royal Navy. Or am I looking at this overly simplisticly? :ugh:

Melchett,

I suspect that while RAF Coastal Command do well, it would have been handy if we still had a Navy & Fleet Air Arm.

Touching wood it's notable that the FAA traditionally get shafted just before a major war !

We do have more assets than publicised, mostly airborne, as every other country does.

As to turning merchant ships into very nasty big-time bombs, with something beginning with 'N' wheeled up the Thames, I understand there are sensors available to stop that, and you can bet the meeting place of politicians will have the best protection.

Whether we have the means, ship, sub' or air / spaceborne, to take it out is another matter.

Regards from a minor one of the team on the first Sea Eagle firing !

Someones been reading Duncan Falconers book, 'Hijack':eek:

Yankees had that idea on 10/9/01.

No way we could get attacked by planes as we have Radar where as the Hijackers flew in first class and after visiting Mickey Rat they did the deed.

Presuming that LNG terminal is already been given adequate attention about and below sea.

Speaking from recent bitter experience I find it terribly sad that our once proud naval reserve is now nothing more than a suport organisation for the Royal Marines when deployed overseas. I know at least one senior officer who is trying to get a maritime element back into the Maritime Reserves but I fear the case is lost. This is a crying shame because coastal forces and seaward defence would be an ideal activity for the RNR. As it once was in the past for our predicessors. The Sea Fencibles, The RNAV and the RNVR. (Not to forget the RNXS, bless them!)

While many airborne assets are in theory available to police our "shores", that is not the same as saying they conduct regular patrols.

I would suspect that cost is a major factor in whatever actually takes place....

The joke used to be:

Q: Are you in the Army?
A: No I'm a Royal Marine.
Q: Ahh so your in the Navy then??
A: No, they are merely our Taxi service.

What a crying shame that an element of truth is creeping into that comment.


Gone are the days when the RN could handle any kind of sea battle, however I would doubt that any nation would rest if they knew that a few RN hunter killers were lurking around.

Not only the danger of terrorists blowing up a tanker but the UK coastline is ideal for smuggling as well not only terrorists items like weapons and explosives but crime related smuggling is also a threat to our society like Drugs and people.
I do sometime wonder if a proper paramilitary border protection service would be a better option than the myriad of different services providing the current patchy service.

GPMG, thanks for your sentiments. You are so right about our SSNs. First the Argies knew about it was Belgrano sinking. Result, 25 de Mayo runs for home and never comes out to play again. Problem is they are not realy coastal boats. We need SSKs (or a couple of German SSCs), that's Diesels to you chaps.

Nurse, you may be suprised to know that at one time a secondary war role for officers such as my self was to be a Customs Officer.