NYPD has anti-aircraft capability

Did anyone watch the "60 Minutes" segment on the NYPD's counter-terrorism unit? I didn't but caught this story on Commissioner Ray Kelly saying the unit can take down a plane.

Shouldn't that job be left to the military (National Guard included)?


http://news.yahoo.com/nypd-chief-police-could-down-plane-needed-234359488.html

What NYC really needs is anti-aircraft guns deployed across the city.

 

I would not be shocked if Kelly was exaggerating their capability.

 

I think they should let Dick Clark get off a few rounds on New Year's Rockin' Eve.

 

He probably means take down a plane like a plane on a runway with a SWAT team. There is no way the NYPD has any sort of Triple-A or surface to air missiles (SAMs). Stingers, Patriots and 20 mike-mike autocannons aren't sold to police departments. Those things are expensive to use, expensive to maintain and require highly trained personnel to operate. Not happening in a police department, even one as big as the NYPD.

 

My guess is that with their direct lines of communication with the military, they could conceivably play a role in taking down an aircraft.

 

How hard is it to take down a plane on a runway? Bruce Willis can do it in his sleep.

 

A Stinger costs 38K. And the NYPD has a full-time US military component.

 

The NYPD just has a big gun.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/can-the-nypd-shoot-down-a-plane-kinda-sorta-not-exactly/

Slightly off topic, but should the NYPD have counter-terrorism units that go across state lines, or have cops stationed overseas?

 

A SWAT platoon with automatic M-16s can probably put up a wall of lead that might seriously damage a low-flying soft civilian aircraft. But that's a stretch.

 

Good luck with that. When you think about how fast a plane flies, even a Cessna, good luck hitting it with a tiny bullet (M-16s fire .22 Remingtons, basically). It'll put holes in it, sure, but it sure won't take it down. You need an HE round to do that. 5.56 rounds don't have explosive in them except for propellant, unless you're on Aliens with those badass pulse rifles. They mostly come at night...mostly...

A .50 cal sniper rifle would disable a plane on the runway. The SEALS did that to Noriega's Cessna Citation jet in Panama. But in the air? Yeah, right. The Barrett is a semi-automatic weapon with a very, very low rate of fire. It's heavy. Even with the all of the recoil springs, it still hurts to shoot it. I know, I have. It's hard to move the muzzle to train it on a fast-moving plane. I put that next to impossible, like Bruce Willis taking down a 747 by himself in Die Hard 2.
As someone whose military specialty was shooting down aircraft and incoming missiles, you need a high rate of fire, some kind of fire control system and the ability for the weapon to train rapidly to keep up with an aircraft. A .50 cal sniper has none of those.

So the NYPD is full of crap.

 

You'd have better luck getting Mike Tyson to let loose a flock of pigeons in the plane's path.

 

But you probably just made the terrorist watch list with this post, so congrats.