I'm not one who claimed there were no naval exercises in the area as I have no idea. I did say there's no way they would conduct live fire exercises in a busy air corridor. By that I meant live fire capable of shooting down aircraft. I did not mean anything on or below the surface of the ocean.
Your map shows "notice to mariners" below the area highlighted as a "navy firing area." It does not say "notice to aviators."
Since it looks like it's off the continental shelf and it's not too far away from Groton, logic would dictate it is where submarines practice. I think by now everyone but Talisker realizes there are no anti-aircraft missiles on submarines.
For those who claim there was no P3 in the area.
Also not something I claimed. I just said that I couldn't find any info to back up claims in your link that a P-3 was towing a target. I don't think they do that. Never heard of that and can't find info on that. Plus the navy uses self propelled drones as targets like the BQM-74.
Actually, I'm the only one who doesn't give a damn if they are or not. As has been so mockingly pointed out, people can't see past around three miles of ocean from the shore because of the curvature of the earth, and the missile would have been launched from farther out than that. So would it really change anything if it was from a ship over the horizon?
And I'm still not convinced that subs weren't testing or using subSAMs at the time. Why? 1) Because the concept has been pursued by various companies, and 2) Because anyone actually on a sub in those days would not have discussed a top secret technology then or now, especially if it still hasn't been released as having existed back then (which is a subtle, but important point). And yes, if it was used back then that fact would not be cleared for release even today, because of what it would mean about TWA800. So no, anyone with directly knowledge of this information from their hallowed sub days would still not admit it on FR.
But, if it wasn' a sub, so what? It's still a missile fired in the middle of a naval exercise. Via Occam, that means the navy fired it, if not from a sub, then from a ship. Or is it also an absolutely absurd fantasy that a ship would have SAMs? Or that the launch vehicle wouldn't be visible past three miles from shore - at night? Or is that just cheating, because all of this is dependent upon a sub? But I thought it wasn't dependent upon a sub, that it couldn't be dependent upon a sub, because it's literally impossible - subs are only outfitted to deliver teddy bears, and it would take an ASWDTTRRESG-level brain tech MasterChiefCaptainAdmiral with two Ph.Ds, the Congressional Medal of Honor and Astronaut's Wings to verify that anything - anything at all - other than teddy bears could ever be delivered by a sub?
So why not fire the missile from a ship? An Aegis ship, maybe? [shrug] Does it really matter? The POINT is that it was MOST LIKELY TO HAVE BEEN a Navy missile.