According to Fox News, in an exclusive posted yesterday, on the same night a U.S. Navy fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea, a second jet nearly suffered the same fate. An F/A-18 Super Hornet—flying a few miles behind the Hornet that was shot down—was forced to take evasive maneuvers after a second surface-to-air missile was fired from the cruiser USS Gettysburg, narrowly missing the second jet by 100 feet while it prepared to land aboard the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman. This was according to a source with knowledge of the incident.
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.
Fox quotes the Centcom statement saying that “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, which was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman.” However, the source said that was 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.
