Three US F-15E shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses.

[KJakker]

I thought I would share this.
https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/4418568/three-us-f-15s-involved-in-friendly-fire-incident-in-kuwait-pilots-safe/

Edited March 2 by KJakker

[Wrench]

oh shit!!! somebody's getting fired!!

glad the crews are safe!!

[GKABS]

From what I gathered from my friend (I don't need to go into detail), the US fighters had their IFF set and didn't tell the Kuwaiti Air Force about their code as they didn't take off from Kuwait. Or they had their IFF off and were likely on their way back to Jordan. The Kuwaiti air defense battery receives that signal and can identify the track as unfriendly or unknown. The Kuwaiti defenders likely saw an unidentified threat that matched the behavior of the enemy they were currently engaging, and they fired to protect their position. The failure was likely in the electronic handshake (the IFF code) or the communication link between the returning strike package and the ground defense command center. The important thing is that no one was killed or hurt.

[Trotski]

Someone failed, ie failed to tell the F15 crews, that local air defences, in the surrounding countries, (Kuwait) were on high alert, so a failure at the USAF end I would say if the IFF's were inactive. Hopefully this very expensive error didn't kill anyone who didn't need to be slotted !!! Kudos to the Kuwait Air Defence chaps though, as tthey did the their jobs, and were not in error, or so it appears. Hopefully no other FUBARS of this magnitude will happen again. 

[warthog64]

All six crewmembers are safe

Friendly Fire is something that happens in warfare. Especially a large scale war as this is. Kuwait is an ally. Regardless of if the PAC-3 was operated by the U.S. Army or Kuwait it was an accident. Kuwait and the U.S. as well as all the Persian Gulf states are allies.

Edited March 3 by warthog64

[yakarov79]

20 minutes ago, Trotski said:

Someone failed

yup...someone who gave power to Beavis.

[Trotski]

Hey, Lads......I got this great idea, lets go to war, and not brief anyone, that it maybe dangerous, oh and lets turn off the IFF after we exit the operational area, 'cos them transistors are hard to come by, and we dont want to ga an wear them out do we now.

[Flanker562]

I mean that's US Foreign Policy, so I guess we'll go with it.

[daddyairplanes]

8 hours ago, Trotski said:

Someone failed, ie failed to tell the F15 crews, that local air defences, in the surrounding countries, (Kuwait) were on high alert, so a failure at the USAF end I would say if the IFF's were inactive. Hopefully this very expensive error didn't kill anyone who didn't need to be slotted !!! Kudos to the Kuwait Air Defence chaps though, as tthey did the their jobs, and were not in error, or so it appears. Hopefully no other FUBARS of this magnitude will happen again. 

the error (human or computer) was more likely on the part of the Patriot. one jets IFF down, i believe. three down in the same flight? nope

somebody didnt read the scope right or the black box that says "thats a good guy" broke

 

that said, i would like to take the time to mention that the MIM-104 has now shot down more US fighters in the 21st century than the S300 and 400 combined 

[Viggen]

Now it's being reported that a Kuwaiti F/A-18 shot all three down? 

https://www.twz.com/news-features/kuwaiti-f-a-18-hornet-responsible-for-shooting-down-three-usaf-f-15e-strike-eagles-report

[warthog64]

Yeah something obviously went wrong