Which type of weapon was the Provisional Irish Republican Army using in it's attack on Heathrow Airport
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1994 Heathrow mortar attacks The 1994 Heathrow mortar attacks were a series of homemade mortar bomb attacks targeted at Heathrow Airport carried out by the Provisional IRA. Over a five-day period, Heathrow was targeted three times (9, 11, and 13 March) by the IRA, which fired 12 mortar rounds. Heathrow was a symbolic target due to its importance to the United Kingdom's economy, and much disruption was caused when areas of the airport were closed over the period due to the IRA attacks. The gravity of the incident was heightened by the fact that Queen Elizabeth II was being flown back to Heathrow by the RAF on 10 March.
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Barrack buster Barrack buster is the colloquial name given to several improvised mortars, developed in the 1990s by the engineering group of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).
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Chicken gun A chicken gun is a large-diameter, compressed-air cannon used to fire dead chickens at aircraft components in order to simulate high-speed bird strikes during the aircraft's flight. Jet engines and aircraft windshields are particularly vulnerable to damage from such strikes, and are the most common target in such tests. Whole, dead, standard-size chickens, as would be used for cooking, are thought to accurately simulate a large, live bird striking a plane in flight.
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Attack on RUC Birches barracks On 11 August 1986 the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacked the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base at The Birches, County Armagh. The base was first raked with gunfire before being completely destroyed by a bomb, which was driven through the gate of the base in the bucket of a JCB driven IRA Volunteer Declan Arthurs.
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Brixton Prison IRA escape 1991 On the 7 July 1991 two Provisional IRA volunteers Pearse McAuley and his cellmate Nessan Quinlivan escaped from HM Prison Brixton using two hand guns smuggled into them and subduing a prison guard. It was one of the most serious IRA escapes from a prison since the 1983 Maze Prison escape
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Operation Flavius Operation Flavius (also referred to as the "Gibraltar killings") was a controversial military operation in which three members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) were shot dead by the British Special Air Service (SAS) in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988. The three—Seán Savage, Daniel McCann, and Mairéad Farrell—were believed to be mounting a bombing attack on British military personnel in Gibraltar. Plain-clothed SAS soldiers approached them in the forecourt of a petrol station, then opened fire, killing them. All three were found to be unarmed, and no bomb was discovered in Savage's car, leading to accusations that the British government had conspired to murder them. An inquest in Gibraltar ruled that the SAS had acted lawfully, while the European Court of Human Rights held that, although there had been no conspiracy, the planning and control of the operation was so flawed as to make the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The deaths were the first in a chain of violent events in a fourteen-day period; they were followed by the Milltown Cemetery attack and the corporals killings in Belfast.
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Blast bomb Blast bomb is a term used in Northern Ireland for a type of improvised explosive device. More specifically, these devices are usually a form of homemade grenade, which is thrown at a target. These devices have been used in a number of public order situations, and in attacks on the Royal Ulster Constabulary, its successor Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and British Army. A police officer was killed by a blast bomb in Northern Ireland during The Troubles by loyalists and in 2001 Loyalist protesters threw a blast bomb at Catholic schoolgirls, some as young as 4 years old, making their way to school in September 2001. Ordinary fireworks are sometimes used in a similar fashion to blast bombs. Such devices which are packed with nails are referred to as nail bombs.
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Attack on James Murray's bookmakers On 14 November 1992, the Ulster Defence Association launched a gun and grenade attack on James Murray's bookmakers on the Oldpark Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland. One gunman opened fire on the customers, whilst another threw a grenade into the shop. The shop was in an Irish nationalist area and all of the dead were local Catholic civilians.
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Coagh ambush The Coagh ambush took place on 3 June 1991, when a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit from the East Tyrone Brigade was ambushed by the Special Air Service (SAS) in the village of Coagh, County Tyrone. The three-man IRA team was on its way to kill a part-time member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). Eight SAS members opened fire on the IRA unit's car, killing the three men and causing the car to burst into flames.
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High-explosive squash head High-explosive squash head (HESH) is a type of explosive ammunition that is effective against tank armour and is also useful against buildings. It was fielded chiefly by the British Army as the main explosive round of its main battle tanks during the Cold War. It was also used by other military forces, particularly those that acquired the early post-World War 2 British 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7A1, including Germany, India, Israel and Sweden. In the United States, it is known as HEP, for "high explosive, plastic".
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1974 British Airways bombing attempt The 1974 British Airways bombing attempt was a failed bombing attack on a British Airways flight on 23 July 1974. The Provisional IRA claimed responsibly for the failed attack. It is the only time that the IRA has tried to bomb an passenger aircraft in flight, and was the second terrorist incident involving a bomb aboard an aircraft in the United Kingdom.
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Gary Smyth (loyalist) A native of Belfast's Shankill Road, David Lister and Hugh Jordan state that Smyth joined the UDA for the first time around 1980 but left again in 1981 after a disagreement with his superiors. William "Bucky" McCullough, a leading figure in the West Belfast Brigade, was killed at his Shankill home by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in 1981 and Smyth hatched a plan for shoot up a bus stop on the republican Falls Road in retaliation. When the plan was Vetoed by Smyth's superiors he left the UDA in disgust at what he perceived to be their inaction.
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Teebane bombing The Teebane bombing (or Teebane massacre) took place on 17 January 1992 at a rural crossroads between Omagh and Cookstown in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. A roadside bomb destroyed a van carrying 14 construction workers who had been repairing a British Army base in Omagh. Eight of the men were killed and the rest were wounded. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) claimed responsibility, saying that the workers were killed because they were "collaborating" with the "forces of occupation".
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Claudy bombing The Claudy bombing occurred on 31 July 1972, when three car bombs exploded mid-morning on the Main Street of Claudy in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The attack killed nine civilians, and became known as "Bloody Monday". Those who planted the bombs had attempted to send a warning before the explosions took place. The warning was delayed, however, because the telephones were out of order due to an earlier bomb attack. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) issued an immediate denial of responsibility, and later claimed that "an internal court of inquiry" had found that its local unit did not carry out the attack.
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Nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or from a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb). Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first test of a fission ("atomic") bomb released an amount of energy approximately equal to 20,000 tonTNT . The first thermonuclear ("hydrogen") bomb test released energy approximately equal to 10 e6tonTNT . A thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2400 lb can release energy equal to more than 1.2 e6tonTNT . A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire city by blast, fire, and radiation. Since they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation of nuclear weapons is a focus of international relations policy.
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QF 4.5-inch Mk I – V naval gun The QF 4.5 inch gun has been the standard medium-calibre naval gun used by the Royal Navy as a medium-range weapon capable of use against surface, aircraft and shore bombardment targets since 1938. This article covers the early 45-calibre family of guns up to the 1970s. For the later unrelated 55-calibre Royal Navy gun, see 4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun.
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1972 Donegall Street bombing The Donegall Street bombing took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 20 March 1972 when the Provisional IRA detonated a massive car bomb in Lower Donegall Street in the city centre just before noon when the street was crowded with shoppers, office workers, and many schoolchildren.
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United Kingdom and weapons of mass destruction The United Kingdom possesses, or has possessed, a variety of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. The United Kingdom is one of the five official nuclear weapon states under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and has an independent nuclear deterrent. The UK has been estimated to have a stockpile of 120 active nuclear warheads and 215 nuclear warheads in total. It had renounced the use of chemical and biological weapons in 1956 and subsequently destroyed its general stocks.
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Strand Bar Bombing The Strand Bar Bombing was a gun and bomb attack carried out by the Loyalist Paramilitary organisation Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The Blast destroyed most of the building and killed six civilians and injured about 50 more.
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32nd Regiment Royal Artillery 32 Regiment Royal Artillery ("The Wessex Gunners") is a Regiment in the Royal Artillery, part of the British Army and is equipped with the Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk III mini unmanned aerial vehicle (MUAS). 32nd Regiment is one of two Royal Artillery units that operate UAV systems (the other being 47th Regiment) and along with 5th Regiment RA they provide an integrated tactical and strategic intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) capability. As part of Force Troops Command, under the immediate command of 1 Intelligence & Surveillance Brigade (1ISR), 32nd Regiment supports the Reactive Force elements of the British Army. It provides dedicated MUAS capability to 1, 12 & 20 Armoured Brigades, operating from the Bulldog armoured vehicle, and also supports 16 Air Assault Brigade. In December 2016 it was announced that the Regiment will be disbanded and its personnel be redistributed to other parts of the British Army.
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1983 Royal Artillery Barracks bombing On 10 December 1983 a bomb exploded at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, South East London. The explosion injured five people and caused minor damage to the building. The bomb exploded in a guard room, leaving a crater 15 ft deep. A Christmas party was underway in the Sergeants' Mess, around 300 yd away, when the bomb exploded. The Scottish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the bombing, stating that "more will follow", although Scotland Yard believed that the IRA were behind the attack. The IRA later admitted responsibility for the attack.
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Oxford Street bombing On the 19 December 1974 the Provisional IRA exploded a car bomb which was parked opposite to Selfridge's department store on Oxford Street in London. The bomb attack was carried out by an IRA active service unit (ASU) known as the Balcombe Street Gang who carried out some 40 attacks in England between October 1974 - December 1975.