Analysis: These are familiar tactics – but on a much bigger scale

IN MANY ways, the security for the Olympic Games in London will be quite straightforward – more so than people might imagine.

Most of the places that are going to feature heavily, and might therefore become targets, are already very well protected by the police generally.

For example, the police are very used to protecting football grounds from rioting or from other problems. The Olympics will see a far greater extension of the same practices they use for that.

There will be security checks of people coming into arenas, whether they are spectators or taking part.

It will be a much greater level of security, but it will essentially be the same tactics that are already being used in the United Kingdom.

We saw this in China, at the Beijing Games, for example, where everyone coming in was checked, and I believe that is why the UK government has employed so many people – we are talking about well over 20,000 whose task will be to provide security, and much of that will involve checking people.

What has been noticeable is how open they have been about the security presence that is to be put in place.

We know that the Royal Navy, army and air force will provide up to 13,500 personnel, about half of whom will be supporting the smooth running of the Olympic sites, while the others will be ensuring specialist requirements for counter terrorist security.

Typhoon jets will be based temporarily at RAF Northolt, while Puma and Lynx helicopters will operate from HMS Ocean.

This overt show of strength is clearly designed to send a message to any terrorist group or individual that security is high, in the hope that it will prevent anything happening again.

However, we can also be sure that, behind the scenes, MI5 and MI6 will be involved in keeping an eye on people suspected of, or known to be involved in, terrorism.

These people are watched all the time, particularly the most serious ones, but they will keep a particularly close eye on them in the build up to the Games and while the Olympics are on.

• David Capitanchik is a defence expert at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.