Another U.S. Navy fighter jet narrowly avoided becoming the second victim of a “friendly fire” incident over the Red Sea.
On the same night an F/A-18 Super Hornet was shot down by a surface-to-air missile launched from the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, a second jet barely escaped a similar fate.
According to a high-level source speaking to Fox News, the second missile missed the jet by a mere 100 feet as it prepared to land on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman.
The Navy has since confirmed that the USS Gettysburg fired a second missile and is investigating whether the missile’s guidance system was intentionally deactivated.
Fox News reported:
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.
The Navy is also looking into whether the USS Gettysburg switched off the guidance system on the second missile. The near shoot-down of a second U.S. Navy jet has not been previously reported.
U.S. Central Command, responsible for leading airstrikes in the Middle East, including the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, said in a statement about the “friendly fire” incident earlier this week: “The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18, which was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman.”
The source said that is not correct. The F/A-18 Super Hornet was attempting to land aboard Truman when it was shot down after performing a midair refueling mission for jets carrying out airstrikes over Yemen, the source said.
“It was a tanker crew returning to land on the carrier about 10 miles out. They recognized the missile was guiding and punched out about three seconds before the missile hit the jet,” the source said.
The Red Sea incident unfolded as U.S. forces carried out airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
On Sunday, a U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser mistakenly shot down an American F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident.
The two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet, assigned to the “Red Rippers” of Strike Fighter Squadron 11 from Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, had just launched from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman.
The USS Gettysburg, part of the same carrier strike group, erroneously identified the aircraft as a hostile target and engaged it, leading to its destruction.
“The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18,” Central Command said in a statement.
The Navy’s Central Command confirmed that both pilots ejected safely, with one sustaining minor injuries.
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