The Iranians are Israel's principle enemey. Hezbollah is the Iranian surrogate. The Iranians have had the C-802 for a long time. I do not buy this...and of they did not prepare for potential missile engagement while in combat off the Lebannon coast against Hezbollah, it was a critical and fatal mistake.
..it was a critical and fatal mistake.
For one captain and 4 sailors it sure was!
You said earlier that this boat was only 10 miles off the shore - too little time to react, right?
These types of ships are built to operate in open water, not for close in-shore ops, right?
Sounds to me like this ship was not the best choice to perform the task at hand, especially if they knew the anti-missle systems would interfere with friendly air assets and could not be turned on.
My experience with defensive on-board Naval systems?
Zip.
But I did sleep somewhere last night.
I do, though, have first hand experience working on the late, great F-4/G. I'm sure you know what platform was designed to do.
Even during a routine training flight, that crew had to be mindful of what system they turned on when.
I don't believe, for one second, that this ship would have been where it was, if they had even a whiff of an anti-ship missle threat. Or they could have coordinated / cleared out the air assets so they could operate.....or they....etc.
Still, like you said, it does not make sense.
Sadly, warfare is repleat with many examples of situations like this.
This could have been a lot worse.