ok, obviously I'm not conveying my thoughts clearly.
Fact - the airport was operational.
How could this fact NOT have been communicated to the military? rhetorical - it was obviously communicated. My thought is the only justification for such a colossal fuck up would be not knowing their commercial airport down the street was open for business as usual.
Which brings me to your question: What's that got to do with a foul up in target identification?
We have known quantity - a known airport to which the military assigned to/in its vicinity should be familiar.
A part of this familiarity would include standard flight operations --- the various (based on the current airport conditions - weather, wind speed and direction, et al) standard flight paths for both departures and arrivals, speeds, altitudes, vectors, etc.
We have an aircraft on, presumably, a normal departure route flying at both normal speed and altitude away from the local commercial airport. One would think that at least part of target identification training would include "if it took off from our airport, at normal speed and heading.. it most likely is not the enemy"
???
thanks for that information.Part of an AA operator's job is sorting friendly from enemy from neutral. That's hard. Take a look at the required test scores to qualify to attend the training in the US Army:
Example: AIR DEFENSE BATTLE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OPERATOR (14G)
ASVAB requirements: General Technical (GT): 95, Mechanical Maintenance (MM): 96
Vs, say, INFANTRYMAN (11B) or my dumb ass COMBAT ENGINEER (12B)
ASVAB requirement: Combat (CO): 87
And I've met a few folks who washed out because they couldn't pass the tests and got recycled into another MOS. I don't have any exact numbers, but it would appear washout rates are fairly high, and that's with a professional volunteer army selected as a meritocracy.
I've never worked with Iranian military (obviously), but my exposure to other middle eastern military members has not lead me to believe they have, or even value, high levels of competency. They are certainly not a meritocracy, especially in leadership roles.
You will more often be attacked for what others think you believe than what you actually believe. Expect misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and projection as the modern normal default setting. ~ Quintus Curtius
Target identification is literally what an AA guy does. They aren't shooting at any blip on the screen. Their job is to look at a clutter of blips and figure out which, if any, is a threat and then shoot it down. Of course they know the airport is operational. Of course they know most of the blips aren't a threat. That's what target identification is about. The plane was not on schedule. It was an anomaly. The weapon system is a little two missile launcher on tracks. If it's operating on it's own radar system, it sees far enough for the crew to have about 2-3 minutes tops to decide to fire before something it out of it's range. It's manned by a crew of Iranians who were trained by a group of Iranians who were trained by Russians. The same Russians who mistakenly shot down a Malaysian airplane over Ukraine and their own airplane over Syria.
So...foul up in target identification is both the simplest and most likely answer vs, again, the tiny time frame of "can't catch him at the gate but can get authorization to blow up an entire airliner shortly and immediately execute it after take off"
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
I'm not sure "average Iranian soldier" applies. Specific event with specific soldier(s). We don't know whether he/she/they were average, below average, or above average. I wouldn't call it "faith." I simply do not assume incompetence for the convenience of a narrative given to us by the enemy, who bulldozed and destroyed evidence and crash/debris sites, and this narrative differs from their previous narrative. Almost everything is still speculation as to what actually occurred.
So, why this particular plane? is there anything which differentiates if from others departing that morning? If it wasn't the first aircraft to depart, why not any of the other blips blipping away on standard blip paths? There must have been something peculiar and specific to either the particular aircraft or the particular blip. I have no idea. The presentation
of the scenario as it currently exists is just... not quite right.
You will more often be attacked for what others think you believe than what you actually believe. Expect misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and projection as the modern normal default setting. ~ Quintus Curtius
If the US Navy can mistakenly shoot down an Iranian commercial flight then I have no doubt the Iranians can do the same thing...and did.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
Not really faith in capabilities, per se. It's more along the line of expecting snakes to act like snakes. I surmise, though I could be mistaken, that the over whelming majority of British, Canadian citizens on that plane were of Iranian descent. They could be seen as traitors, whatever -- wrapped up in a nice, neat little package -- on a plane from a country neither from the region nor a military threat to them in any way -- sitting ducks as it were as fodder for an act of revenge or terror,
Anyway... after the exchange with BBI, the trigger happy goof seems a level of magnitude more plausible.
You will more often be attacked for what others think you believe than what you actually believe. Expect misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and projection as the modern normal default setting. ~ Quintus Curtius