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U.S. Navy blue on blue- F-18 shot down over Red Sea

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brihard

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Not a ton of info, but looks like USS Gettysburg (Ticonderoga class cruiser) shot down one of USS Harry Truman’s F/A-18s. Both crew punched out and were recovered without serious injury. The theatre’s been hot lately with strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, and some missiles/drones fired at US navy vessels on an ongoing basis.

taskandpurpose.com

Navy shoots down its own F/A-18 in Red Sea fight

The incident happened while the Navy and Air Force engaged Houthis in Yemen. The two aviators ejected and were recovered safely.
taskandpurpose.com taskandpurpose.com
 
brihard said:
Not a ton of info, but looks like USS Gettysburg (Ticonderoga class cruiser) shot down one of USS Harry Truman’s F/A-18s. Both crew punched out and were recovered without serious injury. The theatre’s been hot lately with strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, and some missiles/drones fired at US navy vessels on an ongoing basis.

taskandpurpose.com

Navy shoots down its own F/A-18 in Red Sea fight

The incident happened while the Navy and Air Force engaged Houthis in Yemen. The two aviators ejected and were recovered safely.
taskandpurpose.com taskandpurpose.com
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Mode 5 IFF, ANYONE?!?!
 
The Americans have a history of Blue on Blue action. In a busy environment like the eastern med and red sea I think it was just a matter of time.

I spent basically the last 6 months in the eastern med. She's a busy patch of our planet.
 
Any navy/navy-adjacent types familiar with air defense- how much has to go wrong for something like this to happen in the context of a Carrier Strike Group launching and recovering in an active theatre where they do sometimes get shot at?
 
Jarnhamar said:
Quite the mistake.
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Kind of the ultimate dick move, but I guess a kill’s a kill.

Who would actually have “shoot” authority on the CG? I suspect ARGIS would not have been on automatic unless actively under attack? And surely AEGIS must have some IFF capability given integration with CSGs and the potential presence of ASW assets in air when an attack comes in?
 
brihard said:
Kind of the ultimate dick move, but I guess a kill’s a kill.

Who would actually have “shoot” authority on the CG? I suspect ARGIS would not have been on automatic unless actively under attack? And surely AEGIS must have some IFF capability given integration with CSGs and the potential presence of ASW assets in air when an attack comes in?
Click to expand...
I have to be very careful about saying too about how things actually work, but in general, in a task group, one of the ships is assigned the duties of Anti-Air Warfare Commander (AAWC). This is usually the ship with the best sensors and weapons for that area of warfare and they then coordinate the Air Defence of the entire task group. All aircraft that depart and arrive to the task group are on the ATO, have appropriate IFF and must check in with the AAWC before proceeding with their mission or recovering to the task group. If everyone follows the procedures, a blue on blue is theoritically impossible.

I will be very curious to see the investigative results of this one.
 
SeaKingTacco said:
I have to be very careful about saying too about how things actually work, but in general, in a task group, one of the ships is assigned the duties of Anti-Air Warfare Commander (AAWC). This is usually the ship with the best sensors and weapons for that area of warfare and they then coordinate the Air Defence of the entire task group. All aircraft that depart and arrive to the task group are on the ATO, have appropriate IFF and must check in with the AAWC before proceeding with their mission or recovering to the task group. If everyone follows the procedures, a blue on blue is theoritically impossible.

I will be very curious to see the investigative results of this one.
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Thanks, exactly the level of insight and detail I was hoping for. Totally understood that you can’t say much specific.
 
The articles I’ve read seem to indicate that the TG had recently engaged Houthi drones and missiles, and that the aircraft got shot shortly after taking off from the carrier.

With this limited information, if I had to place a bet right now I’d put my money on the ship’s CIWS having been enabled for the previous engagement and the operators forgetting to reset the settings. I’m not familiar with the exact models involved, but that’s a system that has a mode that allows any air contact with a certain speed profile to be engaged without operator input, and that doesn’t necessarily integrate IFF or Link or any of the other tools we use to build SA and not shoot ourselves.

Not saying this is what happened, but I can’t think of any other scenario where you could lose SA of a recently airborne contact to the point where you’d shoot at it, even if the IFF failed. Regardless, going to be some major fallout from this.
 
I can think of a couple scenarios, other than that. Not a good look for the USN, as it shakes off 2 decades of ignoring Anti-air warfare (we are worse- we actually self-divested our entire AAW capability).
Pelorus said:
The articles I’ve read seem to indicate that the TG had recently engaged Houthi drones and missiles, and that the aircraft got shot shortly after taking off from the carrier.

With this limited information, if I had to place a bet right now I’d put my money on the ship’s CIWS having been enabled for the previous engagement and the operators forgetting to reset the settings. I’m not familiar with the exact models involved, but that’s a system that has a mode that allows any air contact with a certain speed profile to be engaged without operator input, and that doesn’t necessarily integrate IFF or Link or any of the other tools we use to build SA and not shoot ourselves.

Not saying this is what happened, but I can’t think of any other scenario where you could lose SA of a recently airborne contact to the point where you’d shoot at it, even if the IFF failed. Regardless, going to be some major fallout from this.
Click to expand...
 
SeaKingTacco said:
I have to do an open source search, first.

And right now, I have to take my middle daughter Christmas shopping…because…reasons…
Click to expand...

I just came back from doing just that! Good luck my friend. Its wild out there.

Hunger Games Odds GIF
 
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