These "drones" are more like enclosed ultralights, heavily loaded, 50-80mph, which an airliner would have already stalled at and be dropping out of the sky.
Ukraine is modifying a large variety of smaller aircraft to be suicide drones. Yes, A-22s/A-33s are used which cruise at like 100-120MPH or so (though there's been some talk of turboprop conversions of the same, too). But other small civilian aircraft which cruise at more like 160MPH have been employed, versus a late approach speed of the Embraer of 180-190MPH or so.
And remember, radars vary groundspeed, which can easily vary by +/- 25MPH from actual (and will be reading the Embraer's speed on the low side).
The Airliner has a transponder and a radio. Pretty sure the drone does not.
The transponder code, assigned by various ATC would identify that aircraft as a civilian airliner when it checks in, and on the screens of the SAM operators.
Also, the speed and altitude of the airliner, even approaching Grozny would not be the same as a drone. Airliners, even on approach, are somewhat faster, probably 200-250mph, or faster, and much higher in altitude, at least 5000ft, probably more like 10,000ft until close to the airport.
Out of curiosity, why wouldn't a hostile power also put a transponder on their drone (maybe one even replaying a nearby plane's code)? Surely that could help it blend in and avoid defenses
More importantly, it's not uncommon when crossing Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) regions (eg. from Washington Center, to NY Center) for controllers to instruct pilots to change Squawk codes. Same applies when crossing from one country's airspace to another.
One of these drones, without a bunch of extra avionics would be unable to change transponder codes in flight, and talk with controllers via relay, that would probably double the cost of the drone, or at least significantly increase it.
So even doing something creative, like spoofing the transponder Squawk code, from another aircraft, probably wouldn't help.
Also, with Mode-C, and Mode-S transponders, the later used with ADS-B, which feeds all the flight tracking websites, the transponder transmits altitude.
A SAM operator will figure out somewhat quickly if an airliner is supposed to be at 10,000ft and 250mph but isn't according to primary radar tracking, but much lower and slower, that it's spoofing it's transponder.
This is going back a few years, but we used on our systems, AD620 In-Amp (Instrumentation Op-Amp) front-end IC, and a PIC 16F series micro, some filtering in between, for 2 channels. Even today, I think one could get to 2 or 4 channels with wet saline solution, with a low BOM (Board-of-Materials) cost.
I used to repair EEG systems, and work as an EEG tech.
The irony that military healthcare, while far from perfect, has many advantages like it's part of the benefits to servicemembers and dependents, some retirees.
A surprising number of people, especially prior to the Affordable Care Act, would call expanding public healthcare "Socialism", even though many in Congress are veterans. The late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), A Vietnam veteran A-4 pilot, and POW, cast the deciding vote against repealing the ACA. He earned his military healthcare, and then some.
I grew up in Australia, with a mix of somewhat similar Radioshack 160-in-1 kits, and the Dick Smith Funway into electronics [0] vol. 1 kit, and later on a few of the Funway vol. 2 and Funway vol. 3 kits.
Agreed. Doing it to mess with the controller is going to get the crew and the airline in hot water.
That said, there is a fair amount of discretion on the Captain's part, and if the pilot was unable to land at Oakland for an unforeseen reason, such as an ILS malfunction at OAK, then declaring a fuel emergency sooner may be justified.
Knowing that fatigue may also be a factor, which could also result in a missed approach, and they are required to have sufficient fuel for several ILS approaches before diverting, without using their final reserves, could push them to declare a fuel emergency.
Typically, the Captain would say something along the lines of "I can only hold another 10 minutes, before declaring fuel emergency", prompting ATC to get them sequenced for approach promptly.
Adm. Grace Hopper wasn't the only senior officer who was recalled because of their expertise. One is a retired JAG lawyer (a friend actually) who continues to advise at the Pentagon on several areas of expertise. She actually learned COBOL from Adm. Hopper herself, and always had high amount of respect for Adm. Hopper and how she disliked bureaucracy. There is a lesson there.
Ironically, my friend has programmed COBOL on DoD mainframes, and still does as a consultant, having interacted with them for decades. Back in the 1970s she had a surplus IBM minicomputer that her father brought home for business use, and learned COBOL on that, and used the computer for furthering her legal research.
