I understand Malaysian Airlines was too tight **** to pay for satellite bandwidth for ACARS, except during take off and approach in compliance with its engine leasing agreement with Rolls Royce, thus pilots were routinely expected to switch off ACARS after departure. The Malaysian authorities would have known this before they tried to insinuate to the media that this was something sinister.

Similar with transponders that except for the new style push button transponders it is normal practice after handing off from one airspace and before getting a new transponder code to switch to standby until a new code is inputted.

even if they did get that thing airborne the question remains of hitting anything with that 8000lb dumb bomb. when dropped from stratospheric altitude the CEP would be measured in miles.

Nazi Germany was developing an optical celestial navigation system designed to lock on to a particular star on a predetermined directional track. At the end of WW2. Ten engineers who developed this system were recruited to the United States under operation Paperclip, but ostensibly hired by Bulova Watches. This is a clue that the system worked in conjunction with a clockwork mechanical computer not unlike the UZO target deflection calculating system used in German U-boats.

This small team were then in turn contracted to ORDCIT to develop the Nortronics stellar-inertial guidance system directly based on the Nazi system which permitted a CEP of 7.4 nm over 5,500nm distance. Remember too that the Nazi Antipodal bomber was intended to have terminal guidance by a human suicide pilot which means the celestial navigation system got it close enough for a pilot to do the rest.

I am curious why you refer to a “dumb bomb” since with a modicum of common sense even an eight year old could figure out that Germany was not investing so much effort just to deliver a simple high explosive warhead?