Thanks for the breakdown. There was a lot in this that I hadn't heard yet

Hey Sunshine, great podcast brother. It’s Vader. If I remember correctly, we had to go to standby on APG-79 inside of 10 miles when on approach because it messed with moms approach radars if we didn’t. It wasn’t an issue with the 65 or 73, but it definitely was an issue with the 79 at some point in the past. Not sure if that’s still an issue or not, but something I thought about. This final report is gonna be an interesting read

This is suppose to be a extremely professional navy with ironclad procedures and skill sets so as not to create a friendly fire situation. Is this not why there are briefings before the mission and the planes broadcasting they are friendly. The entire air battle space is being monitored by all ships to determine who is who, and yet someone gets confused because they did not get the "memo" or did not read it and decides to shoot first and ask questions later. This is the "Houthis" and not highly contested airspace like it would be if the chinese were involved. Why is it that Israel can conduct missions into Houthis controlled area and having to fly through foreign countries and not shoot themselves down. Lack of Leadership on the ship and training of the crew involved in this incident-someone panicked. The danger is suppose to be from the enemy not from "friendly fire". The term "Friendly Fire" what is that? Makes it sound OK- Opps! Why not just Call it what it is..... SNAFU.

Thanks, Gents, great discussion. On the midnight zulu issue, is there any data on how close they were to 0000z? Was it exactly 0000z? Is there any chance of a slight time differential between players? I'm trying to think of some possible cause for two independent low probability events, and that's one of the few that would make sense.

US had air superiority so only drone threat… can defence operators ID drone from aircraft ? would Crypto be an issue if changed at midnight ?

i heard the same thing, F-18s losing IFF on cat shots and supposedly the navy new about it and was working on it, not saying it happened in this case but it may be a possibility. i think the chances of at least 2 of them losing IFF at the same time is pretty slim and i say this because they shot at 2 of them we'll probably never know about the 3rd aircraft.

Excellent video and explanation guys! For a keyboard warrior that sells electrical switchgear(not a pilot but still love aviation!), this is really neat information that helps in understanding how complex this stuff really can be!

First, well done. Watched four or five commentaries. By far the best dual (air/ship defense) perspective. Totally agree with "probability of Gettysburg error" being more likely than an issue with Texico&Ripper (& maybe Dog). Also thinking the hand-off from the E-2 (especially if due to an E-2 mechanical failure) had a bigger role than we've yet heard. Gettysburg should have de-conflicted friend/foe farther away, but seems to have "panicked" ... perhaps when the E-2 hand-off took place. (wild speculation on my part; I've also heard reporting that the E-2-to-CV hand-off on approach is SOP). That would be two issues. "Omigod incoming" & "IFF midnight code swap failure". Would those over-ride the link/"wi-fi"? The Rhino radar return? The "pressing SM-2 'go' NOW unless you say no" check? Still seems a LOT has to go wrong at the same time for this to have happened! Regardless, well done! Agree w/2 miracles!

Those of you out there watching shows like this who might not have been around in the pre-internet days, it's hard to express just how fortunate we are in 2025 to be able to easily access knowledge-based analysis on a situation such as this rather than depending on general news media who know little (and care less) about the subject matter. This is fantastic!

This is excellent analysis Gentlemen, thank you both. I was a cold war Gunner's mate on Amphibs, so I try to keep up with current tech, events and history. BZ Always !

Thank you for this easy to digest breakdown of events.

Am I right in thinking this is Gettysburg’s first deployment since her nine year refit and that she was the first ship to go through the refit programme ? If so, maybe a few kinks in new systems being ironed out ?

This is cool I can now put a face to the voice thanks Roger!! And Brian thanks for bringing the sunshine

Why is everyone running on about what happens during a recovery? This isn't a failure of NavAir; it is a failure of Black Shoe Navy, plain and simple. Explaining a night recovery adds nothing to explaining why the country is out MILLIONS of DOLLARS, 1 F-18E, and 2x SM-2 missiles. Could you explain the failure on the ship? Who authorized Weapons Release on 2 F-18 who were where they were supposed to be? and if these were actually drones how da FK did they get that close to the carrier?

Awesome discussion and a lot of interesting info. Being avgeek, the air side was quite clear, but the surface combatant perspective is really, really interesting.

According to the message of the second Super Hornet post on a X account (then soon been deleted), they dived and conduct a beam tried to get away from the missile. When the pilot saw the missile past the apex he yell "It's time for us to fucking go"; then he saw the missile's rocket motor went dark , not sure what's happened and he didn't eject. In the end of his post, the boss on the bridge of USS Harry Truman ordered all AAW ships abort from engagement. Personally think the second pilot dodged the missile because it was aborted on time; otherwise, it should be very difficult to get ride of an AEGIS ship with four large and powerful electric scanned AN/SPY-1 passive array radars by purely conducting maneuver like "beam" in a distance about less than 15 miles, let alone this Super Hornet had already in approaching process and lost a lot of speed. So the pilot of the second decided not to eject was pretty risky.

If you can shoot down your own f18 in 2024 You definitely shot down twa 800

Great discussion guys....BZ.....

I am under the impression that the Gettysburg was the plane guard which is 10 nm being the ship....also I understand it could have been the LSO that saw all this going on and called to the Boss to tell the Gettysburg to cease fire which could have been why the second missile went into the eater.

most in depth explanation I've heard so far. awesome!

Excellent take...could be a # of factors that led to this mishap.

Good report look forward follow on re5

Someone is in trouble….

Saying hello from Denver...enjoyed the program...Old Warbirds player here... flew with 305th BGH.. mostly B-17s in the S-3 series... now im with the BESERKERS 61st Airlift... hope to meet you guys at some point.

Thank you.

The gloss gray kind of kills the vibe.

Thank you.

Makes the Apache look sexy!

Beautiful Jet. Thanks for sharing.

will you guys be there tomorrow?

Thank you.

❤

That sure is pretty!

This video was really fun - I was not born until 1974 but my first "flightsim" was also F-19 Stealth Fighter on the Commodore C64 back in 1986 (if I remember correctly). These days I crash in DCS....

In know the whole VF-84 and VFA-103 Jolly Rogers is popular from the Final Countdown movie, but the skull and crossbones is such a great Naval icon...

Great interview, thank you!

Awesome interview with great insights…thank you!

Speaking about turbofan vs turbojet, there was actually a J79 variant of the F-16, the F-16/79. It was targeted at export countries who wouldn't be trusted with the latest and greatest modern US turbine engine technology. But its fuel consumption was atrocious (no surprise there), it developed less thrust and it was heavier due to the thermal shielding needed in the engine bay due to the turbojet not having the natural cooling from the bypass air of a low bypass turbofan. It never went anywhere and eventually Raygun Reagan loosened export restrictions to a bunch of countries which then became F100 powered F-16 customers.

I take it you read "Boyd" in prep for this one? nice vid Edit: Final story about AIM-120 was great

Funny how it’s about the F-22 and the pic is of a F-35

thank you

VR is great but you always have to turn down the graphic options compered to 2D. Maybe someday. Can't wait for Campaign!

WOW🎉 0:43

Just can't invest in BD products anymore, many are updated, yet the Harrier training missions have been broken for approaching 3 years.

Great episode guys!

I really enjoyed listening to you guys. Can't wait for The Gamblers!

Can’t wait to play it!

great show

Sound issue fixed for me. Thanks!

I loved the photography dorkout. Nikon vs Canon is the Hornet vs Viper of the photography world. Btw Goldwolfs beginner's guide has a pretty good list of KZbinrs worth following.