McDonnell-Douglas / Boeing F-15 Eagle

Desertfox said:
Three shots, three kills vs peer equivalent is quite impressive. I do believe its the first such case.
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F-15J 52-8846 was shot down by another F-15J via AIM-9L on 22 November 1995. I suspect the recent Kuwaiti shoot downs were also via Sidewinders given the lack of major structural damage and it all appearing to be damage to the engines and rear tail assembly.
 
alberchico said:
This shootdown will no doubt be analyzed and discussed

https://twitter.com/x/status/2029019559403913582
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TOP GUN 3.0
Kazansky's Return

Iceman's ghost possesses Mr. Bean to show the pansies in the USAF just which branch of the Service has the best pilots:

"If we can shoot down 15 mile wide ID4 saucers, Eagles are no problem to FA-18s...I liked The Doors better than the Eagles anyway."
 
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Desertfox said:
Three shots, three kills vs peer equivalent is quite impressive. I do believe its the first such case.
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Ambushing your ally over friendly territory. Yes, very impressive. I'll bet plugging three of your squadmates while they slept in a fox hole would get you a medal. Jesus.
 
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Sferrin said:
Ambushing your ally over friendly territory. Yes, very impressive. I'll bet plugging three of your squadmates while they slept in a fox hole would get you a medal. Jesus.
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Kuwait giving the guy who did this a medal for air to air effectiveness would be incredible, honestly. Such chutzpah.

Forest Green said:
But perhaps the F-15 could have shot first but didn't want to shoot a friendly, so not really legit.
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Weapons School isn't sending their best against TOP GUN. Strike Eagle drivers are just proving they're glorified ground pounders after all.
 
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lancer21 said:
This story is fishier than a fish in the sea.
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It really is, and I'm surprised most people just run with it no questions asked because it's how it's presented in the media. A Legacy Hornet shooting down not one, not two, but three F-15s in a blue-on-blue incident with no communication, no organization, not any form of second guessing or realization? You'd expect allied forces to be aware of who operates where, especially when both have plenty of manned jets active in the same air space. Some form of coordination and control of the air traffic taking place. Especially as both are supposedly professional air forces.

The story made more sense when they still claimed it was a Patriot Battery. But this? It's so laughably implausible, I'm shocked.
 
EmoBirb said:
It really is, and I'm surprised most people just run with it no questions asked because it's how it's presented in the media. A Legacy Hornet shooting down not one, not two, but three F-15s in a blue-on-blue incident with no communication, no organization, not any form of second guessing or realization? You'd expect allied forces to be aware of who operates where, especially when both have plenty of manned jets active in the same air space. Some form of coordination and control of the air traffic taking place. Especially as both are supposedly professional air forces.

The story made more sense when they still claimed it was a Patriot Battery. But this? It's so laughably implausible, I'm shocked.
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I strongly believe it wasn't a legacy hornet. They have been operating Super Hornets for a while now.
yeetmahboi said:
Does the Eagle have IR warning receivers yet? If so this might be the time....
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USAF Eagles don't have MAWS. Even EX models won't receive it, unless they change their minds after this incident.
 
Nart said:
I strongly believe it wasn't a legacy hornet. They have been operating Super Hornets for a while now.
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No, they haven't. You can search around; delivery of the Super Hornets to Kuwait has been repeatedly delayed, and is currently scheduled for some time this year, with actual operational capability a year out from that.

That's why the Malaysian deal to buy the Kuwaiti Hornets as gap fillers fell through.

twentytwo13.my

No-go: RMAF scraps plan to acquire surplus Kuwaiti Hornets - Twentytwo13

On Aug 25, 2025, Twentytwo13 had reported that the deal had effectively collapsed due to a combination of operational, financial and strategic concerns. It is now official.
twentytwo13.my twentytwo13.my
 
I know a reporter was told by someone it was a Kuwaiti F/A-18 but that could still be incorrect. I'd hope for some official statement here because this is really an inexcusable incident. Assuming it was an F/A-18 and whoever in charge was uncertain about these suspected targets, there is no reason the pilot shouldn't have been required to get a visual ID on them first.
 
Colonial-Marine said:
I know a reporter was told by someone it was a Kuwaiti F/A-18 but that could still be incorrect. I'd hope for some official statement here because this is really an inexcusable incident. Assuming it was an F/A-18 and whoever in charge was uncertain about these suspected targets, there is no reason the pilot shouldn't have been required to get a visual ID on them first.
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Well there is also the possibility that the pilot acted with ill intent...
 
Colonial-Marine said:
I know a reporter was told by someone it was a Kuwaiti F/A-18 but that could still be incorrect.
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It's being reported that way by two distinct sources now: the Wall Street Journal and Air & Space Forces magazine. WSJ is saying they have three separate people who told them this. A&SF also cites multiple people. No one is on record because obviously there has to be an official investigation, but this is several different people (at least three, probably more) telling much the same story. I think it's reasonably solid.


www.airandspaceforces.com

Kuwaiti F/A-18 Aircraft Suspected of Shooting Down US F-15s

Kuwaiti aircraft are suspected to be responsible for the shootdown of three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles on March 2.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com
 
Colonial-Marine said:
I know a reporter was told by someone it was a Kuwaiti F/A-18 but that could still be incorrect. I'd hope for some official statement here because this is really an inexcusable incident. Assuming it was an F/A-18 and whoever in charge was uncertain about these suspected targets, there is no reason the pilot shouldn't have been required to get a visual ID on them first.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/2029736103339774181
View: https://x.com/Blaxk__Bird/status/2029736103339774181?s=20
 
Volkodav said:
I can't help but wonder if an E-7 could have made a difference?
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Why...? Link 16 is link 16, the E-7 wouldn't have provided anything better than an E-3 would have. Task saturation seems a likely situation assuming the Kuwaiti aircraft was even on the same Link net.
 
Waterballoon said:
Shooting down 3 friendly US Eagles WVR? He'll probably be locked up for a veeery long time.

If they were Israeli Eagles, he would want to be locked up for the rest of his life.
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Well, war began with death of a pope equivalent for one of world religions, and (if there are people more in the know feel free to correct me) even on the same level as death of Ali(i.e. how Shia islam was created in the first place).
Security services in the ME and around the world have a lot of work now.
 
Forest Green said:
That's actually a serious possibility. Mistakes aren't tolerated so well over there and this is a pretty bad one.
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Assuming it's a mistake. It's difficult to comprehend how incompetent one would have to be to shoot down THREE jets on accident, including at least one (apparently) WVR. The lack of any official detail suggests this isn't a simple "oopsie". In the past at least the bare bones have been known relatively quickly. "Tornado shot down by Patriot", for example.
 
GCI glitch of some description perhaps? I seem to recall some proposals in recent times with regards as to moving back to automated (and supposedly more cost effective) Ground Controlled Intercept systems.
 
Grey Havoc said:
GCI glitch of some description perhaps? I seem to recall some proposals in recent times with regards as to moving back to automated (and supposedly more cost effective) Ground Controlled Intercept systems.
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Unless you have GCI flying the plane (like back in the day with F-106s), you still have a pilot looking out the window and shooting down Rodan out there. Three times.
 
How could that happen, the F-14 has VG wings whereas the F-15 is more conventional, I think the pilot should spend more time looking at fighter identity books.
 
FighterJock said:
How could that happen, the F-14 has VG wings whereas the F-15 is more conventional, I think the pilot should spend more time looking at fighter identity books.
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I mean, it's common knowledge that Gulf pilots aren't the best of the best, add a high stress Situation with Iranian missiles and drones pounding Kuwait and other Gulf States, lots of contacts everywhere and then you have an adversary that flies US jets (and they did actually use their F-4s for strikes, as well as their Su-24s).

I admit, it's still weird, but I don't know how it must feel to be in the cockpit in the moment and see a definitely-not-hornet fly past during a large scale attack.
 

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