If the Iranian air defense battery that shot down Flight PS752 thought it was a cruise missile, another odd decision is that they fired on it from a distance at which they would've missed such a small, fast target, throwing their interceptor missiles away
Share to linkedin... [+]When Iran admitted Saturday that its military shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing 176, a high-ranking officer stated that the plane was misidentified by an air defense battery as a cruise missile. If that’s true, that’s not the end of the soldiers’ poor judgment.
On Tuesday, Iran said it had arrested an undisclosed number of people in connection with the incident. “In the 16 seconds the missile was flying out, the jet might have increased its distance relative to the launcher by a small number of kilometers, so when the missile arrives at that distance, its guidance stops working and it is flying ballistic like a thrown rock,” says Kopp, whose Ph.D. work focused on radar datalink technology and who has published dozens of papers on Russian air defense systems and radars.
Iranian air defense forces likely were operating under looser rules of engagement in anticipation of a potential counterstrike to a barrage of missiles Iran had launched hours before against U.S. bases in Iraq. The SA-15 crew also may have been fatigued after being on alert for the five days since Solemaini’s death and were under heavy psychological pressure, knowing that they could well be targeted by the U.S.
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