USS Gettysburg vs F/A-18

[Captain Chuck]

Friendly fire incident a few hours ago. Noticed that most media was more interested in deflecting from why it occurred to how naughty those Houthis are. I couldn't find out what was used to shootdown the F-18.

 Two US Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in apparent 'friendly fire' incident, US military says | AP News

 

[razorseal]

I came here because I can't think anywhere else where people could speculate better....

 

How is this possible? IFF... locations, datalinks, the F18 not picking up a lock by a friendly radar, getting missile tone.

Lots of things to go wrong for a friendly missile to track you let alone just launch at you. I'm very curious about this.

 

That being said, the commander of Gettysburg def gonna need a new job soon. lol

[Nealius]

IFF, datalink, RWRs are not as accurate and foolproof in real life as they are in DCS. Someone on the CG FUBAR'd their ROE matrix. 

[Aapje]

Apparently, IFF has been known to break due to catapult launches. The military typically does a very thorough investigation, but it will take quite some time.

[Dragon1-1]

Also note, modern phased array radars will give you no lock or launch warning (recall how the SA-10 works, if you see the FCR on RWR at all, assume you've been launched at). Being tracked by a friendly ship is not a cause for concern, and if you're not looking at it, you're not going to spot a launch. So this likely came out of the blue for the pilots.

I assume the CG crew had been high strung due to cruise missile threat, which doesn't give you a whole lot of time to react. It's no excuse for messing up, but it does make it more likely. Either way, I don't envy the guy who fired that shot, or the captain.

Edited December 25, 2024 by Dragon1-1

[TheFreshPrince]

Good that the pilots survived. Costly incident, but at least not fatal.