News

Well the Olympics are back in the news for all the wrong reasons again.
A block of flats has been chosen for an anti aircraft missile launching pad, and it seems the residents are not happy.  To be honest I wouldn't be in their place either.
First off you have a ton or so of rockets and explosive on the roof, then theres the army manning it going back and fro and the noise they'll make on the roof itself, and pesumably the added security will make it a pain for the local residents.
You have the risk of it being captured by terrorists themselves, or more lightly an accidential explosion or fire. (not forgetting the roof isn't designed or stressed to carry the extra weight.
For me though theres a much bigger issue.  If you do manage to actually hit a terrorist hijacked jumbo jet, shooting it down over a built up part of London doesn't seem a very bright idea to me, and make no mistake, these missles (starstreak and rapier) are not powerfull enough to blow a big jet to bits, just big enough to seriously damage it.
A fully laden jumbo jet weighs in at the best part of 350 tons, thats a bloody big hole somewhere if it comes down.
And another thing, heat seeking missiles don't actually work that well on planes coming towards the firer, and even less well if the plane is diving with the engines throttled back (which it may well be if it's diving on the Olympic stadium), so any missles fired may not lock on and in a heavly built up area hit other buildings, causing even more carnage.
Personally I'm staying well away for the Olympic games (too bloody expensive anyway) but mainly becasue it's a prime target, international coverage etc etc. Not for me mate, I'll watch it all happen for free on TV.