We also work with the Saudi, UAE and Omani air forces as well.
That is where my mind went to as well.
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This is going to impact Op Shader as the ingress/egress routes are over Israel unless the Israelis allow access.
If it we me, I’d just can Shader flights for the next few weeks - I know that we, and the Israelis can do deconfliction, but it seems rather to be begging for a disaster with our bowl out to carry on transiting their airspace when a) they are going to be running ragged pounding the crap out of Gaza - and possibly the West Bank, and Lebanon - and on a hair trigger waiting for trouble from elsewhere.
The problem is, is that Shader is supporting SF on the ground in Syria and Iraq, so withdrawing air cover is not as simple as that. Would they want to be without air cover, I think not.
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What I would be doing is quietly deploying assets such a Typhoon detachments round the UK and GBAD and anti-drone units at vulnerable points.
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Why?
Why round the UK…?
Youre.not a ww3 conspiracy theorist are you?
Ever heard of 9/11, instead of aircraft but using drones, they are quite in vogue at the moment. There is a fifth column in the UK that is perfectly capable of terrorist attacks, think about it!
The UK used the same tactic during the 2012 Olympics.
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Which is fine for a small area, for a defined time.
We simply don’t have the equipment or personnel to do that around the UK. Even if we prioritise critical infrastructure.
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There would need to be a significant Intel package to justify such a reaction.
While drones might be in vogue the limitations on building viable IED’s remain consistent with most of those that the security services having an interest in not having the capability.
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Just they missed the MEN Arena and Liverpool Women’s Hospital bombers then if you far further back they missed Manchester Armadale and Canary Wharf…
The older ones you mention were a very different type of terrorist with a very different support network in place at a different time.
Liverpool Women’s hospital is very much the current threat, ambitious but rubbish. The same as Tiger Tiger and the last Tube attack.
It’s really really difficult to make at the best of times and 35 years of PIRA has made it even more difficult in the UK. Yes every so often someone will get lucky (Manchester Arena) but 1 successful attack in the 18 years since 7/7 doesn’t warrant putting cloud punchers in Hyde Park unless their is very real Intel.
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This may seem tangential, but when did we - as a culture/society - move from Int to Intel…?
I hate it. It’s off some crap film where the CIA bloke always dresses in black and has a ponytail…
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It’s another Americanism. Unfortunately.
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The PIRA were probably the most surveiled and watched at the time by the security services and also the British Army, then you add in terrorists such as OIRA/ and INLA, then their is their opposition in the UVY/UDF as well. Remember Steak knife?
Liverpool Women’s Hospital was averted only because the failed asylum seeker turned terrorist scored an ‘own goal’ and the hospital was a secondary target as he couldn’t get near the Remembrance Service at Liverpool Cathedral due to the security cordon.
The MEN bomber and his associates were suspect of being a threat and the mosque he attended was suspected of supporting radial Islamic ideology, much like some in the big UK towns and cities.
Who knew 9/11 was going to happen until it did??
My aunt would say George W Bush.
Outside of the military no one has ever called it Int.
PIRA wasn’t trying to make TATP they were either using off the shelf plastic or AMFO very different things.
That and the device was a fizzle, because make TATP is incredibly difficult to get right, it didn’t even kill the second person in the car.
We didn’t.
That is because the driver did a runner and locked him in the car. You only have to get it right once if your a terrorist.
Anyone taking bets that the “determined response” is likely to be a strongly worded letter?
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