@mhoye those three downed fighters more than double the US's F-15 airframe losses in combat over the past fifty years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_F-15_losses

@mhoye
Honestly, it could go either way with me

I served in the US Navy—on aircraft carriers—from 1984-2005

Every one of the six carrier deployments I participated in saw us lose at least one aircraft to accident or maintenance issue

During that same time period, I recall several incidents that never made it into the news, such as the practice bomb that was dropped onto one of the smaller ships and nearly killed two people, and the time when the pilots got lost on their way to the practice range and bombed a historic ghost town

Then there the whole invasion of Iraq where the US attacked it's own ground troops because they didn't realize that the tanks were making better time than anticipated (and said tanks didn't carry IFF)

Sure, it's possible that they are spinning a loss to unpiloted aircraft, but just as likely that they shot themselves, because that shit happens all the time, but does not get reported

@mhoye I can absolutely believe it, especially when you have kegsbreath on TV saying shit like "no more stupid rules of engagement".

@mhoye Easy to believe IMO, especially given the report it was Kuwaiti SAMs who are likely not as well coordinated as US force would be. Both previous gulf wars had numerous friendly fire incidents, and they had fewer incoming air targets

As far as drones go, at least one of the F-15s was clearly hit be a missile. Could theoretically have been launched from a drone, but it'd have to be a pretty advanced, long range one to do it over Kuwait

@mhoye it's not implausible, in fact it's even likely if the Kuwaiti air-defenses weren't integrated with the US IFF systems. In an environment saturated with targets people get trigger-happy. The Russians shot down a lot of their own planes over Ukraine for the same reason.

@mhoye Or by the F-15's own inherent software flaws.

@mhoye We've already been practicing shooting down our own aircraft in the desert outside El Paso, so I expect we're pretty good at it by now.

@mhoye it sounds like it was a single incident, and given the general chaos - and mismatch between an F-15 and any drone available to Iran - I'd say it's a lot more believable, that a returning flight got tagged as hostile and shot down.

@mhoye
It would be tragicomic, as IIRC Ukrainian infantry trains to shoot Shaheds with small arms (provided low enough attitude).

@mhoye Weapon-wielding Americans are usually so careful

@mhoye
I wish it was hard to believe, but my history of contacts with the Canadian armed forces and their stories tell me it's 100% plausible. Americans are sloppy and friendly fire happens.

I had a buddy come home from a computer networking exercise with the Americans with a friendly fire injury in his unit. Yup, went from "pulling cable for printers" to "shot by an American".

@[email protected] Why go for the lesser embarrasment? Given the levels of communication skills displayed in other areas, I think it's entirely possible three F-15s were shot down accidentally by friendly $5000 drones...​