I haven't talked much about the F-18 getting shot down but it can only be one of two things and neither is good....
1. The USS Gettysburg in a BENIGN electronic warfare environment for some reason shot down one of our own aircraft or..
2. As Carlton stated in a previous post the primitive, sandal wearing, sheep herding Yemenis were somehow able to knock down one of the US Navy's premier strike fighters.
Quite honestly I'm leaning toward Carlton's thinking. Somehow goat herders were able to take down one of our aircraft.
That my friends is stunning.
Its kinda ironic too. On the aviation side of the military blogging community they've been having a field day by posting photos of all the bombing, UAV shootdowns and anti-aircraft sites being plastered on the side of aircraft.
I can't help but think that laxity might have played a role in this thing. They were thinking this was a replay of the great Turkey Shoot and forgot that the bad guys were shooting back.
Manned aviation should have taken a back seat on this one. Predator UAVs with the right payloads could handle this mission. Or if you have to have people in the cockpit then a few B-52s would have been much more economical.
Pride goeth before the fall. The DoD has been cruising on pride for too long.
