A Show Of Military Might For London 2012

British military forces will have a key role during the London 2012 Olympics, protecting the city from terrorist attack.

Here’s HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy’s biggest ship, sitting just off Greenwich after a close encounter with the Thames Barrier a little earlier today. She has a compliment of Lynx helicopters on board, and will be the floating home for the Royal Marine’s unit of crack snipers during the Olympics.

Elsewhere in London, a demonstration of air defence weapons was put on for local people – here you can see the radar-guided Rapier missile system (although we were assured that the munitions on show were actually dummies – lumps of concrete replacing the explosives and fuel inside the missile casings). There’s also an optically-guided system on show, which will incorporate Starstreak missiles.

I suppose I find this show of military prowess quite reassuring, but I think we all have everything crossed that none of these defences will be needed during this summer’s games.