why was the EW gear turned off? That is seems very odd for what is taking place there.
I don't know. That sentence jumped right out at me. Our EW gear was turned on before we left the dock, and wasn't turned off until we were tied up at the pier. That was in peacetime. I can't understand why they would be in a war footing with that gear turned off. It's your first line of defense! If it was broken down instead of turned off (the article is not clear on this), they should have never been that close to shore.
Had they had their passive gear operational, they would have at least picked up the acquisition radar! Bad command decisions, lousy operational awareness, and pathetically overconfident combat/tactical operations appear to have ruled the day. Something is not right here.