I was interested to see this post over at Extrano’s Alley that the NYPD commish was bragging that they had the ability to take down aircraft. I’m thinking unless they picked up an SA-7, or some cheap and only likely marginally effective Soviet or Chicom AAA armored vehicle, that a Stinger or some other such MANPAD was awfully expensive for even a city as large as New York. Nonetheless, you never know, given enough budget and reckless abandon, what city officials will purchase. So I at least gave them the benefit of doubt that perhaps the NYPD got their hands on the mother of all toys.
Turns out that the NYPD commish bought his own bullshit, and was referred to the Barrett .50 cals in his department’s inventories. If they had a couple of Ma Deuces strapped to an SUV, or even a mini gun, I might concede that perhaps they have the ability to take out a rogue aircraft with the right kind of gunner, if it’s moving slowly enough, and they don’t mind raining lead down on large parts of the city when they miss (which will be most of the rounds). But if the M82A1Â is what the commish thinks is his anti-aircraft kit, he’s a lot dumber than I thought.
I guess it is a good thing that the NYPD is not the group responsible for the missing stockpiles of hand-held surface to air missiles in Libya.
As to thinking that a Barrett and a sharpshooter in a helicopter can do it, maybe if it is an old Piper Cub puttering along. For the rest of the aircraft, heh!
Ignorance is such a blissful state.
And if he could down an aircraft over NYC…where would it go? Into a building, I suppose. I think that has happened before and didn’t seem to work out so well.
How do these people get into positions of responsibility?
Well, Libyan SAMs have gone missing from depots; maybe Bloomberg used his financial might to have them smuggled to the NYPD.
Only if they didn’t missed the first 70+ rounds and hit a bystander in the process of shooting for planes.
This is what happens when people who know next to nothing about firearms start talking about firearms. It’s sad that the police commissioner of the largest city in the US has no idea what his arsenal is capable (or not capable) of.
Heh, it must be a new capability, whatever it is, since they didn’t try to shoot down Air Force One when some idiot decided (in 2009) to fly it low over New York landmarks, without warning anyone in NYC beforehand that they were coming.