A Kuwaiti F-18 shot down three F-15 jets in a friendly fire incident
New Delhi:
An American-origin F/A-18 fighter jet, and not surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) as initially believed, had taken out the three F-15E Strike Eagles in a friendly fire incident in Kuwaiti airspace on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Here's your cheatsheet to this story
- The F-18 Hornet is a maritime multirole fighter jet, mostly operated from the decks of US aircraft carriers. From the first F-18, it has seen new-generation variants with widely different roles. This naval fighter jet has been used in combat missions in every major American intervention, including the post-September 11 War on Terror campaign.
- Some of these fighters use the name "F/A" to mean it can work in both air-superitority as well as attack or strike roles. This greatly enhances the range of missions the F/A-18 can take. How the friendly fire incident happened is under investigation.
- The F-18 Hornets came as the successor of the US Navy's F-14 Tomcat swept-wing carrier-based fighter jet, which enjoyed pop culture status after it appeared in the 1986 film, Top Gun. The Hornets also took over the duties earlier done by the A-7 Corsair and the F-14 Phantom.
- The 2022 film Top Gun-2 featured the F-18 Super Hornets, coincidentally, the same fighter jet that replaced the naval aircraft that played a large role in the film's first part. Boeing says the F/A-18 Super Hornet is the backbone of carrier air wings - a combat-proven, multirole strike fighter.
- Another version is called the EA-18 Growler, which is said to be one of the best electronic warfare aircraft in the US Navy's arsenal. It can carry air-to-air missiles to defend itself and fire anti-radiation missiles that home in autonomously at sources of radar emissions, like SAM sites. The Super Hornet and Growler form a complementary carrier-based team that delivers multidomain lethality and electromagnetic dominance, Boeing says.
