LA HAGUE (France) Oct 26: France deployed ground-to-air missiles at its most important nuclear installation on Friday, indicating its readiness to shoot down hijacked passenger aircraft such as the ones used in the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Air force personnel installed two batteries of Crotale missiles near La Hague nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Normandy. Crotale radar systems were deployed there a week ago.

The radar has a range of 150 kilometres (95 miles) and is used primarily for detecting aircraft at low and medium altitude. The missiles have a range of eight kilometres (five miles).

The deployment is part of a new air security programme ordered around “sites of national interest,” with the aim of improving the capacity of the armed forces to shoot down rogue aircraft.—AFP