Royal Marines Thames Exercise

15.01.2012

The Met Police's Marine Policing Unit and the Royal Marines will be carrying out exercises on the River Thames in London in the coming week. A series of familiarization exercises will be taking place in preparations for providing security for the upcoming Olympic games. The exercises will include the use of patrol vessels, inflatables and helicopters.

The Thames river network is seen as a vital transit route for security forces in the event of a terrorist attack during the games. It may also be used by terrorists to reach their targets and so during the games the police and Royal Marines will be vigilantly patrolling the capital's waterways.

It was announced in December that the amphibious assault ship, HMS Ocean, will be anchored off Greenwich during the Olympics. Ocean's compliment of 9 Assault Squadron Royal Marines will be aboard the warship, ready to deploy into London via boats and helicopters. Puma and Lynx helicopters, some carrying sniper teams, will operate from the ship in order to provide air security in coordination with RAF Typhoon jets. It was earlier reported that the SAS will be based at a Thames-side location, ready to use inflatables to respond to incidents.

more info, further reading:

• Met and Marines in Thames Olympic planning
  (the metropolitan police)
  
  
• It's only a test! Security exercise set for Thames
  (associated press)
  
  
• London 2012 security exercise starts on Thames"
  (bbc news)
  
  

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