Rooftop missiles get OK
Residents lose their challenge of the plan to deploy a battery on their East London high-rise.
LONDON — The British military can deploy a surface-to-air missile battery atop a high-rise apartment building during the Olympics, a judge said Tuesday, throwing out a challenge by residents who argued that their home would become a prime target for terrorists.
The battery would be capable of targeting suspicious aircraft, deploying warheads that travel at up to three times the speed of sound. The government is planning to set up six such installations around London as part of a massive security operation for the Summer Games that will also include 13,500 troops, more than Britain has stationed in Afghanistan.
Tenants of the Fred Wigg Tower apartment in East London, near Olympic Park, took the government to court, saying that it failed to consult them properly in deciding to plunk down an antiaircraft missile battery on their rooftop and alleging that their right to a peaceful home life had been violated.
But a High Court judge dismissed that challenge Tuesday. Justice Charles Haddon-cave said the military was within its rights to choose a residential building as a missile-launching platform and that its outreach efforts to the community, while not obligatory, were “immaculate.”
Residents of the apartment building were laboring under “something of amis apprehension” as to the nature of the weaponry and of the risks posed by it, Britain’s Press Assn. quoted Haddon-Cave as saying.
Critics have described the government’s security arrangements for the Summer Olympics, which kick off July 27, as overkill. In addition to the missiles, the military is also mooring its biggest warship in the Thames and patrolling from above with spy planes and helicopters with snipers.
The security budget for the Games now stands at about $875 million, double the originally intended amount.