Yes. Intriguing, esp because these WERE being tested and it accounts for a explosive missile which other claims don’t.
But this would be the equivalent of testing a kinetic energy gun across the San Diego Freeway ar rush hour-—without clearance.
I suspect stupid decisions are still possible among some extremely smart people. Could be that the waters off Long Island were very convenient to their research facility and the project manager assumed that nothing unexpected could go wrong.
The technology that darth mentions seems to have been capable of reaching the plane if it locked onto it instead of the target drone.