Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, with passengers and crew on board, was shot down by Iranian air defenses, which was acknowledged by the Iranian government, but the story may not be over yet, and related to the US and Israeli cyberattack.
To be sure, Iranian air defenses were on high alert, fearing an American response to a missile strike against American bases in Iraq in response to the assassination of General Soleimani on January 3. Civilian passenger flights were still departing and arriving in Tehran, which is almost certainly a mistake by the airport management. It is also inexplicable that civilian planes continued to take off and the prize? * ?? even after Flight 752 was shot down.
However, in addition to human error, there were facts that have yet to be explained. The Iranian rocket launcher operator reportedly encountered significant "interference" and the plane's transponder shut off and stopped transmitting a few minutes before the missiles were launched. There were also problems with the air defense command's data network. All this could be related.
Electronic jamming emanating from an unknown source meant that the air defense system was transferred to manual control, that is, the operator had to independently assess the situation, and he had a few minutes to react in time. Disabling the transponder, which was supposed to automatically inform the operator and the electronics of the Tor air defense system that the plane was civil, instead automatically indicated its hostility. The operator, who knew about a possible attack by American cruise missiles, fired.
The system of the Thor anti-aircraft missile system includes both a radar for detecting and tracking targets, and an independent launch system equipped with a system for identifying friendly and unfriendly targets to prevent fatal errors. Given what happened that morning in Tehran, it can be assumed that something or someone deliberately interfered with both the Iranian air defense and the plane's transponder, possibly as part of an attempt to create a plane crash that could be blamed on Iran.
SAM Tor has one serious vulnerability. Its security system can be compromised or "imitated", allowing an attacker to impersonate a legitimate user and gain control over it. The US Navy and Air Force have reportedly developed technologies "that can deceive enemy radars with false and distorted moving targets." To cheat the system also means to cheat the operator. The Guardian reported that the United States military has long developed systems capable of remotely affecting the electronics and editing targets of Iranian missiles.
This same technology, of course, can be used to alter or even mask the transponder signal of a civil aircraft in such a way as to send false information about the aircraft itself and its location. The United States has cyber and electronic warfare capabilities to both suppress and alter signals related to both airliner transponders and Iranian air defenses. Israel appears to have the same capabilities.
Joe Quinn of Sott.net also makes interesting observations from photographs and videos that have been published in the New York Times and elsewhere, showing the launch of an Iranian rocket, its hitting the plane and its debris after the crash, including rocket debris. Photos appeared on January 9 in the Instagram account "Rich Children of Tehran." Quinn wonders how the author of this account ended up in a “low-income housing complex on the outskirts of the city [near the airport] at 6 a.m. on January 8, with a camera pointed exactly at the region of the sky where the missile hit a Ukrainian passenger plane. …?"
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Combine this fact with US electronic warfare capabilities, and it all looks like a deliberate and carefully planned event, and the assassination of Soleimani was only part of it. Following the attack on the plane, riots erupted in Iran, accompanied by accusations against the government. Some people on the street are clearly calling for the goal that the United States and Israel have long aspired to, namely "regime change." As for the crash of flight 752 of Ukraine International Airlines, there are still many questions.
Philip Giraldi, journalist, former military intelligence officer of the CIA
Abridged translation of the article "Who Targeted Ukraine Airlines Flight 752?"
