Three US F-15Es Lost Over Kuwait, Friendly Fire, All Survived, 3/1/26

OK, this just ****es me off even more. We give them the damn planes, we train them to use it. We have a C2 environment all over the middle East and this Richard Cranium blows down three friendlies - by mistake? I'm getting my tin foil hat dusted off here. Beginning to think '5th columnist' type of conspiracy stuff now.
 
Barrett50 said:
OK, this just ****es me off even more. We give them the damn planes, we train them to use it. We have a C2 environment all over the middle East and this Richard Cranium blows down three friendlies - by mistake? I'm getting my tin foil hat dusted off here. Beginning to think '5th columnist' type of conspiracy stuff now.
Click to expand...

To be fair, your last statement is the rumor I'm hearing. Which would make a bit more sense. Maybe a long term Iranian plant?
 
I will adapt the Hanlon razor to affect that which occurs in the muslim middle east: Mohammed's syllogism - attibute what has occured to the stupidity. Being stupid leading to malice. So, it is maliciously idiotic. Yes, I have spent some less than quality time in that region.
 
Are you
Barrett50 said:
I will adapt the Hanlon razor to affect that which occurs in the muslim middle east: Mohammed's syllogism - attibute what has occured to the stupidity. Being stupid leading to malice. So, it is maliciously idiotic. Yes, I have spent some less than quality time in that region.
Click to expand...
Are you referring to this incident in particular or to the whole party?

Sounds like one Middle Eastern country dragged a non-Middle Eastern big kahuna “ally” into the party, which resulted in numerous other Middle Eastern allies getting stuff launched, shot, or thrown at them as bystanders.

And I wonder what “our” reaction would be if one of our jets smoked three of their jets by accident instead.
 
I had the great pleasure of being a Liaison Officer to the Saudi Air Force helicopter pilots going through flight school at FT Rucker…most had Royal connections and were obviously not selected for their intellectual prowess. Non-Royal connected were much better, normally top of their military school. But universally things like preflighting and remembering emergency procedures seemed optional in their minds. At the time they had six months in San Antonio learning English prior to reporting to FT Rucker and flight school…one of the smarter ones wrecked a class C RV he had purchased on the road trip to Alabama after putting the cruise control on, and going to the back to get something…I doubt things have changed.
 
@Pugs, I have heard that the IFE is great, but you can only listen to Gimme Some Lovin', Fortunate Son, or Long Tall Sally.

Oh, you said IFF...
 
The story I read was there were a lot of Iranian drones in the area and were in the process of being shot down. I don’t know what was used that knocked out the F15s. Would they even have the ability to know if a heat seeker had been launched and started tracking them?
 
If this was an A-A shoot down, would it be the first time an aircraft has shot down an F-15? Asking because since forever it's had bragging rights of not having that happen.
 
Warlock said:
I had the great pleasure of being a Liaison Officer to the Saudi Air Force helicopter pilots going through flight school at FT Rucker…most had Royal connections and were obviously not selected for their intellectual prowess. Non-Royal connected were much better, normally top of their military school. But universally things like preflighting and remembering emergency procedures seemed optional in their minds. At the time they had six months in San Antonio learning English prior to reporting to FT Rucker and flight school…one of the smarter ones wrecked a class C RV he had purchased on the road trip to Alabama after putting the cruise control on, and going to the back to get something…I doubt things have changed.
Click to expand...
Oh they were bad. Had one who was so lost during low level pilotage and dead reckoning, I wasn’t sure we were still in Alabama anymore. I asked him like three times “ do you know where we are?” He replied each time with “I do not, but it is ok…is ok.” Finally after like 10 minutes past ETA I had to take over and turn on the GPS. Another Saudi student I had was asking why his NVGs wouldn’t focus. He was looking inside and trying to focus on the instrument panel!

I was always amazed that they didn’t ball up aircraft left and right in Saudi. Probably has something to do with most of my friends fly over there as contractors because they rarely use their own people. Same thing in Afghanistan when I was there.
 
Albany Tom said:
If this was an A-A shoot down, would it be the first time an aircraft has shot down an F-15? Asking because since forever it's had bragging rights of not having that happen.
Click to expand...
F-15E not an A or C model, AND friendly fire, not actual combat.
 
Albany Tom said:
If this was an A-A shoot down, would it be the first time an aircraft has shot down an F-15? Asking because since forever it's had bragging rights of not having that happen.
Click to expand...

From Wiki
22 November 1995: F-15J, 52-8846, of the 303rd Tactical Fighter Squadron, Komatsu AFB, JASDF, during air-intercept training over the Sea of Japan, flown by Lt. Tatsumi Higuchi was shot down by an AIM-9L Sidewindermissile accidentally fired by his wingman. The pilot ejected safely
 
Velocity173 said:
Same thing happened in the early stages of OIF. An F-18 and a Tornado were shot down through bad IFF interrogations. I was glad the Patriots were gone when I got there. Our Mode 4 sucked half the time.
Click to expand...
I was going to bring those up. I was part of the team doing the GR.4 frat investigation. The next time I flew one of the wild weasel guys broadcast on the strike freq “the next Patriot that spikes me dies”.
 
TCABM said:
I was going to bring those up. I was part of the team doing the GR.4 frat investigation. The next time I flew one of the wild weasel guys broadcast on the strike freq “the next Patriot that spikes me dies”.
Click to expand...
Yeah Patriots are no joke. Once they lock, you’re pretty much done. Rotor wing altitudes (50 ft ish) we were pretty safe though. MANPADS / AAA was our threat.

Kinda thought the original rumor of PAC-3 strike was false. All crews survived and the one image shows the F-15E mostly intact. PAC-3 isn’t going to leave much of the aircraft left and they’d be lucky to survive.
 
Velocity173 said:
Yeah Patriots are no joke. Once they lock, you’re pretty much done. Rotor wing altitudes (50 ft ish) we were pretty safe though. MANPADS / AAA was our threat.

Kinda thought the original rumor of PAC-3 strike was false. All crews survived and the one image shows the F-15E mostly intact. PAC-3 isn’t going to leave much of the aircraft left and they’d be lucky to survive.
Click to expand...
My first thought was the KU Patriots engaged, then I heard there were survivors and threw that guess out the window.
 
I can sorta understand why the Kuwaiti's were a little itchy on the trigger finger. I mean they were once invaded and occupied for a while.
 
Saddam was killed by us 20 years ago. If it was an air to air, the pilot of the Kuwait plane was maybe 8 years old when Saddam took the dirt nap, and not even born when the US liberated Kuwait. Sorry, no soup on that excuse. Back to Mohammed's syllogism.
 
Well, I don't know about anyone else's sources but this event has left the media in a flash. I can't find any un-searched info on cbs, or fox or bbc. Must be my profile, but it's crickets out there for me anyway.
 
Barrett50 said:
Well, I don't know about anyone else's sources but this event has left the media in a flash. I can't find any un-searched info on cbs, or fox or bbc. Must be my profile, but it's crickets out there for me anyway.
Click to expand...
If it bleeds, it leads.

No serious harm done, it’s on to the next shiny thing.
 
I remember a cartoon from I think the first gulf war, written by a US infantryman, and the caption was "friendly fire is not'.

My uneducated guess is that inept is way more likely than malicious, but not to underestimate the ability of people to take advantage of a good screw up for their own agenda. If it weren't for that kind of thing, we might not have Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and Cuba might still be a Spanish colony. Don't forget the Maine!
 
Warlock said:
I had the great pleasure of being a Liaison Officer to the Saudi Air Force helicopter pilots going through flight school at FT Rucker…most had Royal connections and were obviously not selected for their intellectual prowess. Non-Royal connected were much better, normally top of their military school. But universally things like preflighting and remembering emergency procedures seemed optional in their minds. At the time they had six months in San Antonio learning English prior to reporting to FT Rucker and flight school…one of the smarter ones wrecked a class C RV he had purchased on the road trip to Alabama after putting the cruise control on, and going to the back to get something…I doubt things have changed.
Click to expand...

We had a Saudi prince in infantry officer basic course. Morbidly obese. One cold morning in the field he refused to get out of his sleeping bag to go on a road march. We dropped him on a fire. He got out.
 
4th F15 shot down. This time by Iran.

Pilots ejected and picked up by CSAR
 
FlightmechH3 said:
4th F15 shot down. This time by Iran.

Pilots ejected and picked up by CSAR
Click to expand...
People were confused about the A10’s showing up. They said land strikes.
I thought no they are there for SAR missions in Iran. The new Sandy you might say.

edit: I don’t know if they were used in this incident.
 
Last edited:
Barrett50 said:
Saddam was killed by us 20 years ago. If it was an air to air, the pilot of the Kuwait plane was maybe 8 years old when Saddam took the dirt nap, and not even born when the US liberated Kuwait. Sorry, no soup on that excuse. Back to Mohammed's syllogism.
Click to expand...


WWII happened just a few years before I came into being.

I never forgot. Never forgot the Alamo either.

I would bet that the Kuwait history books did not leave out the occupation nor did the people forget.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top