Apparently the peak operations for the Typhoons will be on May 4th & 5th so I will be paying my Dear Old Mum longer visits during those days, armed with cameras !!

As I was driving past the airfield on West End Lane this morning a Sea King helicopter with what I assume was a radar pod slung underneath it passed in front of me at an altitude of about 100 ft. Unfortunately I didnt have time to pull over and take a snap.

Sea Kings have been flying in and out of there for weeks now. I see them all the time

The Chinooks and Sea Kings are being parked on the apron on the SW side of the base, close to the fuel tanks adjacent to the A40. We are lucky to see any Chinooks anywhere in the UK as most (almost all) are overseas or being stripped down

The Euro fighters have had 3 temporary hangers built (like the RAF use in Afghanistan, but green at Northolt). They located are right next to the runway at the control tower end (to aid a rapid deployment & access to the preferred end of the runway for take off into town. The tent like hangars are full enclosed & have portacabins & generators parked in between. I do hope the pilots position large armchairs outside the portacabins during the games, so they can sit there partially rigged and smoking pipes, ready to go if needed.

(Oh and as a local resident, they can bugger off to where they came from as soon as the closing ceremony ends at the Paralympic games, cause I don't want them here all the time, blooming noisy things )

For the life of me I can't see the point of having them on the deck at Northolt...... Unless it is purely grandstanding a show of force.

If terrorists get an aircraft close enough to London where the Typhoons have to be deployed then the system has already failed. What do they actually intend to do shoot one down over the West End? In fact Terrorists need not do much at all, all they do is take control of an aircraft aim it in the general direction of Stratford, mutter Allah Akbar over the radio a few times whilst losing height and the security services will do the rest.

A large airframe such as a 747 or 330 coming down in a densely populated part of the capital will have the capacity to kill thousands of people.I expect SOT has seen a computer model from his time in the LFB as they train for such an eventuality all the time.

^^ Presumably the Navy presence in the Thames Estuary and/or the surface to air missile batteries being placed atop residential properties in Bow will deal with that, before the Typhoons ??

That assumes of course the 'threat' ( if any ) approaches from the east of London. A change in wind direction and of course aircraft on approach to Heathrow will be coming from the west, ie: over Windsor etc. Perhaps thats what the powers that be are considering ?

Who knows, but it does all seem a bit over the top.

The surface to air they were looking to put on the top of that building really is last chance saloon, the absolute last line of defence for an airborne threat to the Olympic site. Even so by operating that defence they would still have the potential to cause a disaster of epic proportions..

The Navy on the Thames to to protect against an assault Mumbai style...

Have to agree about the noise "SOT", we have it here for a week for the Airshow and I love it, but couldn't handle it if it was permanent!

heard them a couple of times, not yet seen any.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

All this is very public and frankly amazing. Can you imagine what is happening behind the scenes - stuff they won't be putting on the telly???

Like you Jim - I heard them but saw nothing

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I do not suffer fools !!!!!