Originally Posted by
Propduffer
IFF was created for military usage and when civilians use it's function they do it 180 degrees opposite from the way a military would use it.
Since a military can't get the enemy to squawk an identifying code they have their 'friendly" A/C squawk a unique code.
Thus military air defense ignores all codes except the one they are looking for, and they wouldn't give a hoot if a target is squawking the same code used by airliners.
Some of us used to call this doctrine "squawk or die"
but the squawk in question was Mode IV.
I am sure most people can understand
- Why civ airliners are not going to be equipped with Mode IV.
- How an open IFF squawk can be spoofed.
This means that civ airliners flying near dangerous areas require
procedural means of airspace management to avoid danger. The Malaysian flight, and the others who were flying through that airspace volume, assessed a low but not zero risk, I would guess. Well, the "not zero" risk paid off, as they say in Vegas.
Lord, please don't make me flash back to real world airspace volume management in real life ... some of my worst headaches came from that.
