Friendly Fire on F/A-18

[jyl]

That’s quite a friendly fire eff-up.

Are there protocols that are supposed to avoid this? Rhetorical question. Any guesses what went wrong?

[Bill Douglas]

I think blame the Houthis, I know it wasn't them who pulled the trigger, but blast every known location of theirs anyway.

I think the guys had their fingers on the trigger and had to be fast to shoot drones. And shooting anything that moved in the sky. Maybe too fast to think first.


.

[KFC911]

Hmmm... reckon' I better see what happened.... ????

[sc_rufctr]

Friendly Fire on F/A-18

That sounds like a very expensive "Own goal". No doubt they'll find someone to blame.

[Seahawk]

Eeek!

https://news.usni.org/2024/12/21/u-s-super-hornet-shot-down-over-red-sea-in-friendly-fire-incident-aviators-safe

[GH85Carrera]

Someone is gonna be in trouble!

[herr_oberst]

That's a not insignificant eff-up.

[Jeff Higgins]

Happy to hear that both aviators were found and are o.k. That's the most important part - this could have been so much worse.

It's still, however, about a $66m screw-up. Now we're talking real money. Granted, there is some "scalability" to all of this, as anything involving jet aircraft is big bucks. $66m to our Navy is a drop in the bucket in light of what they spend. The real value here is the aviators, and not just their lives, but the investment the Navy has put into these guys. That's where the real money is.

So, yeah, just glad they were found and are relatively unhurt. If I were one of those two, when the culprits are found, I would sure like to be allowed to meet them. That won't happen, of course, but it sure would be gratifying, in a way.

[rfuerst911sc]

Someone is getting coal in their stocking over this

[Bugsinrugs]

Given my small thinking…. Better a jet down than a ship. Glad pilots are ok.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by jyl

Any guesses what went wrong?

Improper trigger discipline?
or

[Bill Douglas]

LOL

Yeah, maybe hey didn't even touch the trigger.

[flatbutt]

Given the sophistication of our systems I'm wondering if this was a human error or a computer error. Did a fire officer actually give the order or was it an automated defense?

[Arizona_928]

Human error is subjective.

Depends of roe. We can track objects for a long distance away. Now if there’s other factors and this guy popped up out of nowhere and had no iff or even a weird mode not local to the ao, things would be popping off.

[A930Rocket]

A second F/A-18 a few miles behind the downed plane, was fired upon, but was able to evade, the missile.

On the same night a U.S. Navy fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea, a second jet nearly suffered the same fate. An F/A-18 Super Hornet – flying a few miles behind the Hornet that was shot down – was forced to take evasive maneuvers after a second surface-to-air missile was fired from the cruiser USS Gettysburg, narrowly missing the second jet by 100 feet while it prepared to land aboard the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, a source with knowledge of the incident tells Fox News.

A Navy official confirmed that a second SM-2 missile was fired from USS Gettysburg, adding that the Navy is investigating whether that missile was targeting the second jet.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/second-us-navy-fighter-jet-narrowly-avoided-being-shot-down-friendly-fire-incident-source

[Arizona_928]

Those comments are crazy. Blaming the DEI military.

[Racerbvd]

[onewhippedpuppy]

To be fair, our military has been focused more on men in dresses and pronouns than lethality over the last four years….

If we ever hear what went wrong, this could be an interesting one. Military aircraft have multiple ways to identify themselves as friendly, in particular an IFF system that’s pretty standard even on non-tactical aircraft. No reason for this happening.

[oldE]

Here's another scenario: information overload, too many objects in the air, or equipment failure.
Don't let your beliefs and prejudices get in the way of the truth, whatever that might be.

Merry Christmas
Les