Somebody produced a news clip from Iran from approximately three years ago where an Iranian senior officer proudly claimed their air defence forces had individual authority to launch. The aircraft was apparently not in the air long, so the air defence crews probably didn't have the target acquired for any great length of time. If they actually called up the chain of command, they quickly told them to launch. Regardless of authority, somebody didn't check target parameters, and many innocents were lost. The fault most likely lies at the feet of not just the button pushers, but the command structure that enabled shoddy training and processes.

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