Re: S.T.G raid
"The most damning piece of evidence is their failure to wear body armour. It simply isn't an issue these days."
It's incongruous, I agree. What was the temperature at that time? That's the only get-out clause that I consider viable.
"If they really needed to get in there quick, they would have infultrated the perimiter first and even with modern security measures, this isn't really an issue."
That's not getting in quick. Look at the size of the green spaces around the place. Why do that when you can just short-cut it all and land in the garden?
Plus, by your method, it'd have taken 45 minutes to find him, given 30 minutes to crawl around in bushes with wirecutters and jog across the lawn.
"The helicopter would have been used with an IR camera to identify the location of the occupants and if they started moving etc. So, if everyone is sleeping upstairs and nobody starts moving, you're OK!!"
IR doesn't work like that on buildings of that size, yet. Despite what the movies say. You can't see through that kind of roof space and several floors, even with thermographs.
"For information, when raiding a house, speed is everything."
Speed and security. You never leave stuff at your back. The army SOP is to put a grenade into every room and a round or ten into everything that could hide someone: Police cannot do that. That slows things down a bit. So you either send in some guys to quickly clear the place, or do it slowly, or send in a front-team to quickly sweep and follow it with a better search. So that first team are going to miss stuff, obviously... like maybe the panic room. I'm not excusing it; just pointing out that the timeframe might not be indicative of them being totally inept.
"Again, you only need to look at how long it took the SAS to get into and out of the Iranian embassy. Going slow will get you killed. "
They swung in the windows and were dealing with a hostage situation, having shoot-to-kill orders. That's an apple and an orange there, chap.
"Finally, did they cut the power when entering? That's pretty standard as well. Those going in have night vision, leaving the defenders at a disadvantage when the lights suddenly go out. "
Did they even have NVGs? Do the team even have them? If not, then clearly their budget is a little lower than those of special forces. I've certainly never seen UK police with them; armed or not.
"Secondly, the helicopters had been specially modified for low noise operation."
Mate; That's entirely moot. You can still hear them half a mile away, and especially if they land in your back yard. And a chopper over Pakistan is going to alert armed militia a lot earlier than a chopper over sleepy NZ suburbs.