NYPD Can Take Down A Plane?

That's their claim from a 60 Minutes interview. Here at the NY Post (which always has some questionable pics on the sidebars), they claim the weapon they have is a Barret .50 caliber rifle that can be mounted to a helicopter.

So their going to take down fixed wing aircraft with a rifle on a helicopter? They've been trained for it. I'm skeptical.

It's kind of hard to hit a moving target from another moving target. Especially when the speeds vary. Fighter planes, when using guns, utilize automatic weapons that put hundreds of rounds in the air. They seem to be claiming that it's a single shot rifle. The likelihood of a miss seems high. The likelihood of collateral damage is also high.

Weapons analysts said one .50 caliber round fired into a car engine would stop the vehicle cold.

The bullets — variations of which have been used by the military since the 1920s — will penetrate most commercial brick walls and concrete cinder blocks.

But let's say, just for shits and grins, these yahoos get off a lucky shot and bring down a plane. Where exactly might it come down? Certainly not on a populated are, right?

Nah!