New York police can shoot down an airplane if needed, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told the CBS News program "60 Minutes."
"In an extreme situation, we would have some means to take down a plane," Kelly said on Sunday night's broadcast.
"I prefer not to get into the details but obviously this would be in a very extreme situation."
The New York Police Department built up extensive counterterrorism and intelligence divisions after the attacks of September 11, 2001, saying it could not rely on the federal government alone for protection from an attack.
Seems an odd thing to tell people. Why advertise?
[quote name='neverquit' date='26 September 2011 – 11:00 AM']
Seems an odd thing to tell people. Why advertise?
Why advertise indeed. If it's the truth, the opponent now has knowledge. If it's a bluff, the opponent now has knowledge. "Loose lips sink ships".
In the first place, unless they have a *lot* of training on engaging fixed wing aircraft with small arms (.50 Cal Barrett as I recall, is not a crew-served weapon), and have some exceptionally sophisticated laser ranging scopes with speed tracking, and get their .50 out of the armory and deployed in time….
Maybe they figure on using tracers. "But", I'd guess they don't have a belt-fed .50 anyway which would enable using tracers to walk a line of fire into the path of the aircraft. I'd give them a very small chance of making a disabling hit on any incoming aircraft using small arms and personal .50's.
Maybe they've armed their choppers with rockets. There probably aren't many places in metro NYC where you could track an incoming plane from the streets anyway. No matter how many .50's you had deployed on the street.
Besides, even if they shot a plane down, where would it crash at instead of it's [suspected] target?
Besides, I'm not sure anyone in NY has the legal authority to order an aircraft to be shot down.
Maybe it was just smoke and mirrors, who knows.
[quote name='OldBear' date='28 September 2011 – 01:47 AM']
Why advertise indeed. If it's the truth, the opponent now has knowledge. If it's a bluff, the opponent now has knowledge. "Loose lips sink ships".
In the first place, unless they have a *lot* of training on engaging fixed wing aircraft with small arms……
Agreed on all points. Unless the aircraft is engaged over water, what is the point? Regardless, the only weapon system that makes sense to me is the Phalanx. That will protect a building or two, and not the building(s) the aircraft would come down on……I'm calling poo poo…..