Rapier missiles at Dover & Ch' Tunnel

Sorry this is a bit late, but the following was in a local kent freepaper (Saturday Observer) last Sat (Jul 30th) and also reported on local TV.

Min of Defense argued that it had nothing to do with 7/7 as it had been planned several months ago.

However, Just who are they thinking is going to attack either
site by air ?

I've only seen about 1 military jet and one helicopter (from the Shorncliffe barracks near Folkestone presumably), so far in the last 4 days, so doesn't seem to be much of an 'exercise'.

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www.kentonsunday.co.uk - original site.

DEFENCE missiles that can blow a hijacked airliner out of the sky up to four miles away will be deployed at the Channel Tunnel, the Saturday Observer can reveal.
The Rapier air defence system is part of the Ministry of Defence’s operation Summer Charge.
The missiles will be moved into position on Monday afternoon on MoD land overlooking the tunnel entrance at Cheriton as Britain steps up its anti-terror campaign.
Officially, Whitehall defence sources say the surface-to-air missiles’ arrival forms part of an exercise linked to Nato.
The system will be manned by troops from the 16th Regiment Royal Artillery at Shorncliffe Barracks.
Rapier missiles are the cutting edge of defence technology flying at Mach 2. Each system – which is highly mobile and has eight missiles on a rotating base – has a crew of two. The operators, nicknamed Cloudpunchers, can hit an aircraft travelling at one-and-a-half times the speed of sound.
Missiles utilise radio trackers (codenamed Blindfire) and have surveillance radar (codenamed Dagger) which can be targeted at hostile aircraft four miles away.
The system was developed in the early 1960s and a second-generation version was used to protect the ships of the Royal Navy taskforce during the Falklands War.
It was a great success and is credited with shooting down 20 Argentinian attack aircraft. But an electrical fault in a Rapier system left the troop ship Sir Galahad unable to defend itself and prevent the loss of 48 lives.
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