Kuwaiti F/A-18's Triple Friendly Fire Shootdown Gets Stranger by the Day

Posted by throwawayffffas 6 hours ago

Kuwaiti F/A-18's Triple Friendly Fire Shootdown Gets Stranger by the Day(www.twz.com)

132 points | 116 commentspage 3

DarkmSparks 5 hours ago|

My theory is Iran is jamming the link16 iff.

monster_truck 5 hours ago||

Saw some unsubstantiated claims that the planes shot down didn't even have it on

DarkmSparks 4 hours ago||

That is the basis for my theory. Not being on

And

Being on but jammed look the same from the perspective of the one shooting them down.

Also, I wonder how resilient it is to the gps spoofing that been going on. If they managed to trick it into identifying itself as a few hundred miles from where it actually was, then very hard to know where it actually is.

All of which is well within Irans technical capabilities.

monster_truck 1 hour ago||

It is subtantially more likely that this individual plane was tampered with or maintained incorrectly than these signals were anywhere close to being effectively jammed (but still less likely than them not having it on in the first place).

The power levels they are operating at are well into "do NOT stand in front of this" territory

esseph 4 hours ago||

Highly unlikely. Highly.

DarkmSparks 4 hours ago||

Why? Specs for link16 jamming have been circulating since before the invasion of ukraine, there is a whole DoD technical report dedicated to trying to update it knocking around somewhere.

Iran claim to have used it to bring down US drones in the past.(1)

1. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1215/Exclus...

Jtsummers 3 hours ago||

That link is about GPS spoofing, not Link 16 jamming, those are two different radio systems and two different attacks.

radicalethics 4 hours ago||

What are the chances Russian jets were involved and it needed to be hidden?

alberth 4 hours ago|

> This is the latest video to have emerged from the extraordinary incident earlier this week in which a Kuwaiti Air Force F/A-18 Hornet was responsible for shooting down three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles.

Why is the US using such dated planes?

chasd00 4 hours ago||

They're not really the same planes, they've been continually upgraded over time. For another example, The B-52 strategic bomber is being used right now and but it was also operational during the Korean war. However, the B-52s flying today are very different than the ones flying back then. Another way to think about it is a computer with an old case but upgraded mb, cpu, and ram.

ericmay 4 hours ago|||

F-15E Strike Eagles have advanced avionics and can and continue to use advanced missiles. They can serve in multiple roles including target identification, aerial combat, and of course air-to-air interception and ground attack roles.

Same thing with the F-18.

Eventually of course all of these weapons platforms will be phased out, but for the time being they are still extremely useful, and even more so after the more advanced aircraft and other attack vectors have taken out or limited air defense capabilities or the ability for enemy aircraft to intercept these aircraft. Not that they can't handle their own, anyway.

nradov 4 hours ago|||

Much of the F-15E fleet is still in relatively good condition. Most other airframes are even older on average. Over the past couple decades most funding went to more urgent GWOT priorities and almost everything else was under capitalized to the point where older aircraft are literally cracking and falling apart.

KyleBerezin 4 hours ago|||

The F-15 family is kind of best-in-class still. It is an agile jet with a lot of weapons. As for the E variant, we tend to just run them until the airframe ages out.

Jtsummers 4 hours ago|||

These aircraft are maintained pretty well. They have explicit refresh cycles where they're taken to depots and pretty much torn apart and then rebuilt. The electronics also get refreshed over time with newer components (not just newer versions of old components or refurbished components, but new electronics and computer systems). It's not like they're still frozen in time at whatever version was initially put out 50 years ago.

UltraSane 4 hours ago|||

Because they still work.

lenerdenator 4 hours ago||

The F-15E has received several service upgrades in its lifetime and has served as the base platform for most F-15 variants sold to other nations over the last decade or so. It's far from dated. They make new ones in St. Louis.