"All fair in love, war and professional surfing."
As the Iran War spills into its seventh day, actual news from the region is frustratingly difficult to come by. Iran’s ballistic missile and drone stocks are either nearly entirely depleted or barely dented. U.S. and Israeli air defenses are either shooting basically every projectile out of the sky or faltering so badly that embassies, oil refineries and downtown Tel Aviv are getting pounded. This is all going to be wrapped up by St. Patty’s Day, tops, or never.
Well, one bit of reportage that leaked from the field, day three-ish, came from US Central Command and shared, “three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles flying in support of Operation Epic Fury went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire incident. During active combat — that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses.”
Rogue patriot missiles to blame.
Mercifully, all six aviators (three pilots, three gunmen) survived.
Well, new information about the incident has since come to light. Air defenses were not to blame, but rather one plucky Kuwaiti pilot.
Per reports in the Wall Street Journal, the unnamed fella soon dubbed the “Gabriel Medina of the Skies” for his three surgical hits resulting in three crowns, launched just three heat-seeking missiles from his F/A-18 Super Hornet and downed those three F-15E Strike Eagles, which cost some $187 million combined.
A former Air Force fighter pilot, confused about how this happened, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that it was “perplexing,” sharing, “If you’re flying air defense missions, the first thing you do is interrogate using your transponder. If you’re beyond visual range, you interrogate the other aircraft to see if they’re squawking a friendly code. If you don’t have a friendly identification, then you proceed to a visual identification.”
F-15E Strike Eagles, he continued, do not look, or behave, like Iranian jets.
Surf fans know, of course, that Medina took out two Australians (Mick Fanning and Julian Wilson) plus one countryman (Filipe Toledo) en route to his three titles.
All fair in love, war and professional surfing.