A U.S. Navy cruiser shot down a Navy F/A-18 fighter jet over the Red Sea early Sunday morning, U.S. Central Command said.
The F/A-18 was shot by weapons from the guided-missile cruiser the USS Gettysburg after taking off from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier on Dec. 22. Both Navy aviators were able to eject from the fighter jet and were recovered safely. One of the two sustained minor injuries, according to CENTCOM.
The USS Gettysburg “mistakenly fired on” the F/A-18, CENTCOM said. The shoot down happened amid a weekend of military action against the Houthis, a militant Yemeni nationalist group that controls much of Yemen, including the capital. American and British aircraft have been bombing targets in Sana’a since Saturday. The incident is under investigation.
The friendly fire incident is the first time a crewed American aircraft has been shot down in the 14 months that U.S. forces have battled the Houthis around Yemen. Houthis claim to have shot down several MQ-9 Reaper drones, but no crewed jets or helicopters. This F/A-18 is the first to be taken out in the fighting, albeit accidentally by the U.S. Navy.
On Saturday, Dec. 21, CENTCOM said that U.S. forces had shot down several one-way attack drones and an anti-ship cruise missile fired from Yemen over the Red Sea, at the same time that U.S. and British planes were hitting a missile storage site and command facility in Sana’a. CENTCOM also released footage of several aircraft launching at nighttime from the USS Harry S. Truman. It’s unclear if similar circumstances were happening here when the Navy jet was shot down.
It’s also not clear what weapon was used to shoot down the jet. The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser carries several missile systems, including several variants of the Navy’s Standard Missile — which have become the main ordnance used against Houthi weapons and equipment — as well as anti-air machine guns.
American forces have been fighting the Yemeni group since October 2023. The Houthis began attacking commercial shipping routes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in response to Israel’s war in Gaza. The USS Carney was the first Navy ship to take part in engagements, intercepting several drones and missiles fired at shipping vessels. The U.S. has deployed significant military power to the region to deal with the Houthi attacks, including several carrier groups. American and allied forces have also launched several large bombing operations on Sana’a and other cities since January.
The USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, which includes Carrier Air Wing 1, entered CENTCOM’s area of responsibility on Dec. 14. It replaced the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which departed in November.