You would think the radar system would have given them some type of clue. Speed. Altitude. Etc. Apparently it did not have friend or foe identification capabilities.
Anyone else hear Anderson Cooper mis-speak (at 3:42 pm EDT) on CNN, saying this event was on “the 18th anniversary of the event in 1996 when TWA flight 800 was shot down over Long Island.”
Unforced error, or inside knowledge we weren’t supposed to hear?
Depends on the battery configuration...”standard” SA-11 batterys have a Tube Arm or Snow Drift acquisition radar, which have an IFF interrogator. And if the battery is plugged into an air defense network, there are IFF capabilities at the higher echelons as well.