ARmy Rumour SErvice

Originally Posted by Ancient_Mariner

Originally Posted by jagman

anyone with a Sunseeker can bring anything they fancy into Britain.

An excellent point. There's a 'ring of steel' around central London. Permanent checkpoints, armed and NBC trained police, facial recognition cameras, even aircraft on standby to shoot down any 9/11 wannabe aircraft.

The Thames has two, unarmed police launches and a pilot boat guarding it.

Not just a Sunseekers you have to worry about though. You can get something the size of a battleship up as far as the Tower of London and further if they're kind enough to open Tower Bridge for you. 10,000 tons of dynamite, TNT ..

Oil tankers & gas transport old boy, there’s an alarming amount of unprotected utility areas around London & the SE. If someone wanted to make a large bang somewhere, shut down the electricity or poison the water, there’s not really a lot to stop them imho.


&c,

~D.C.

Originally Posted by jagman

Originally Posted by old_fat_and_hairy

Actually, the USof A has a good thing going in it's Coast Guard. Now, as a department of Homeland Security, they are not subject to the Posse Comitatus act and have law-enforcement powers. They have also fought in foreign wars, including Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. A sensible organised organisation with S & R responsibility as well as littoral security. We could do with something similar.

Thats what we have the Royal Navy for.
Why create a whole new organisation to manage the function that the Navy has carried out for centuries?
Recruit some more sailors and buy some more boats. Job done.
If you want to do it on the cheap, this country has hundreds of small ports and harbours, pick one every 50 miles or so sround the coast and home a heavily armed patrol boat in it. Each one can have a Customs Officer and an immigration bod attatched. A few spares boats to cover maintenance schedules and administer them from the nearest Customs house.

And restore the Royal Navy to its proper strength while we are at it

They don't even have to be particularly large boats, 30 to 50 MTB style boats, heavy on comms, surveillence kit and anti-ship kit. Either increasing helicopter support on shore stations or 4-5 converted Ro-Ros to operate helis from. They could double up on immigration, fisheries and environmental protection.

Originally Posted by chocolate_frog

Originally Posted by Yokel

Are you suggesting every port should have a small harbour patrol vessel or two to ride shotgun? Something like the Gibraltar Squadron?

Why not? A couple of patrol boats and RIBs in every port... a bit like the RNLI.

Make them RNVR or similar, with a few RN types. They could also encompass the pilots, etc.

And how are you going to stop 10,000 tons worth of tanker with blocks of plastic explosive set to blow the thing up with only a couple of speed boats with GPMG strapped to the front?

Originally Posted by parapauk

Originally Posted by chocolate_frog

Originally Posted by Yokel

Are you suggesting every port should have a small harbour patrol vessel or two to ride shotgun? Something like the Gibraltar Squadron?

Why not? A couple of patrol boats and RIBs in every port... a bit like the RNLI.

Make them RNVR or similar, with a few RN types. They could also encompass the pilots, etc.

And how are you going to stop 10,000 tons worth of tanker with blocks of plastic explosive set to blow the thing up with only a couple of speed boats with GPMG strapped to the front?

2000lb bomb + Tornado Gr 4?

Maybe the could use UAVs for surveillance, backed by a helicopter QRF...

Sounds expensive...

Unfortunately we signed away our need for a reasonable force of fisheries patrol vessels when we decided that our EEZ now bellonged to the EU. Over a decade ago it was worth £8 billion a year. Even the tax on that buys an awful lot of capability.

If we did enforce our rights then it might even be self funding provided we stitch up the spics properly when we catch the greasy bastards.

Originally Posted by Flight

Sounds expensive...

Unfortunately we signed away our need for a reasonable force of fisheries patrol vessels when we decided that our EEZ now bellonged to the EU. Over a decade ago it was worth £8 billion a year. Even the tax on that buys an awful lot of capability.

If we did enforce our rights then it might even be self funding provided we stitch up the spics properly when we catch the greasy bastards.

How many fisheries patrol vessels did we have? Did it cover the North Sea coast, for instance? Scotland?

Could these vessels stop terrorist outrages coming from the sea?

Originally Posted by Whet

Originally Posted by Flight

Sounds expensive...

Unfortunately we signed away our need for a reasonable force of fisheries patrol vessels when we decided that our EEZ now bellonged to the EU. Over a decade ago it was worth £8 billion a year. Even the tax on that buys an awful lot of capability.

If we did enforce our rights then it might even be self funding provided we stitch up the spics properly when we catch the greasy bastards.

How many fisheries patrol vessels did we have? Did it cover the North Sea coast, for instance? Scotland?

Could these vessels stop terrorist outrages coming from the sea?

Taken from http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/operatio...tion-squadron/

"The Fishery Protection Squadron is the oldest front line squadron in the Royal Navy. With a small headquarters staff based in Portsmouth Naval Base, the Squadron comprises 4 River Class Offshore Patrol Vessels, 1 Castle Class Offshore Patrol Vessel and up to 4 Hunt Class Mine Counter Measures Vessels. The primary task of the Royal Navy, in its role of patrolling UK's Extended Fisheries Zone, is its involvement in the highly emotive and politically sensitive UK and European fishing industry."

There used to be 7 Island Class Vessels as well, 6 are now with the Bangladeshis and the seventh is named MV Steve Irwin (FFS!) with the Sea Shepard Society.

Both Castle Class Vessels, HMS Dumbarton Castle & HMS Leeds Castle, have been decomissioned. I believe they are in Portsmouth awaiting disposal.