New Delhi: American F-15E ‘Strike Eagles’ were shot down Monday by a Kuwaiti F/A-18 ‘Hornet’ and not the Patriot air defence system as was initially suspected.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, corroborated by testimony by at least three U.S. official sources, the Kuwaiti pilot accidentally launched missiles toward the three American warplanes that plummeted into the Kuwaiti desert.
Although the crew managed to parachute to safety and are stable at this time, it represents the first loss of an American fixed-wing aircraft since hostilities escalated on 28 February.
The shootdown came amid a very volatile situation in the region after the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. America launched Operation Epic Fury with Israel’s Operation Lion’s Roar, which has led to Tehran unleashing a relentless barrage of drones and ballistic missiles on Gulf nations
US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed the incident took place during an active combat operation, where multiple Iranian drones penetrated the Kuwaiti airspace.
Twenty-four hours before the incident, the tensions reached a breaking point when the Iranian drones struck a tactical operation center at Shuaiba port, which led to the killing of six US service personnel.
On social media, the last visuals of the incident were captured and posted, which showed the multi-role fighter spiraling toward the ground before blowing up into a massive ball of fire.
Iranian state media declared it a tactical victory for their defense system, a claim debunked by the US CentCom’s official fact-check handle.
A perplexing error
Military analysts and former aviators described the engagement as ‘perplexing,’ due to the rigorous identification protocols designed to prevent such tragedies. As per the SOPs, the pilot conducting such operations is required to interrogate potential targets through transponders.
The American aircraft typically has an inbuilt mechanism to identify friend or foe, known as Identification Friend or Foe (IFF), to signal the status to the allied forces.
“It’s pretty hard to mistake an F-15E for an Iranian aircraft, and particularly if they’re not maneuvering in any kind of aggressive fashion,” an ex-Air Force pilot told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Even if the Strike Eagles were operating without active transponders, the protocol requires that hostile intent be demonstrated before an engagement is authorised. The critical point of focus is whether the Kuwaiti pilot followed these identification steps.
Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a press conference at the Pentagon, acknowledged that the loss of three multi-million dollar aircraft was not due to any hostile enemy fire.
In the wake of the incident, the U.S. State Department has taken the unprecedented step of closing multiple embassies and urging all American citizens to depart the region immediately.
(Edited by Tony Rai)