The AFP article hints that the military simply didn’t believe the enemy could improvise a capability that took thousands of bureaucratic hours of effort to acquire. For a certain kind of mentality, the idea that something might cost less than ten million dollars is wholly inconceivable. And because it was inconceivable to the bureaucrat, therefore it was impossible.

And this mentality is now applied across all of modern western, ‘progressive’ governance, isn’t it? From health care to space programs to military technology and campaigns.

One more thing: How much of this vast, and interceptible, communication linkage between ground and air has been spurred on by the obsessive concern with avoiding civilian casualties?