Thread by @WeTheBrandon

Here's why the story about a US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet getting taken down in a friendly fire incident by a US Navy destroyer while engaged in anti-Houthi operations is suspect... 1/

2/ First, a primer. F/A-18 Super Hornets are the primary fourth-generation warplane utilized by both the US Navy and Marine Corps. In this case, the F/A-18F, carrying a pilot and a weapons systems officer.

3/ These birds are some of the best in the world. They come equipped with an insane amount of detection and defensive capabilities to avoid being shot down. Systems, such as the AN/ALE-47 Countermeasures Dispenser, for instance, help deflect incoming missiles.

4/ Other systems, like the AN/ALE-50 towed decoy, have become essential in ensuring the F/A-18s of the US Navy's fleet remain dominant in the unfriendly skies of the world's nastiest hotspots.

5/ Then there's subsystems, such as the Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS) and the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) that all help the F/A-18's crew to have state-of-the-art situational awareness.

6/ Overlayed with all these defensive and detection systems is the fact that the F/A-18s participate in a complex interplay between themselves and the carrier group that they are deployed from. Basically, there are multiple redundancies put into place to prevent friendly fire.

7/ The official story is that elements operating from the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) were returning to the carrier after bombing a missile base and command node belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi Rebels in Yemen...

8/ when the USS Gettysburg (CG-64), a Ticonderoga-Class Guided Missile Destroyer, fired upon the bird. The crew ejected over the Red Sea and were safely recovered with one crew member receiving minor injuries.

9/ The Navy insists that this was a friendly fire incident and that the matter "will be investigated thoroughly." But this was the same Navy that claimed ABSOLUTELY NOTHING happened over the summer to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

10/ What we now know is that a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile came within 200 meters (656 feet) of the US carrier Eisenhower over the summer. So, again, the Navy was, at the very least, downplaying the seriousness of the Houthi missile threat.

11/ Now again we are presented with a massive downplaying of the Houthi missile threat. The fact of the matter is that the likelihood the Navy shot its own plane down, even if with the Biden Regime's military being so painfully incompetent, doesn't pass the smell test.

12/ If the Navy is being honest about the target sets in their recent strike on the Houthis (which included a missile storage facility and a "key command node") then you can bet these facilities were ringed with anti-aircraft defenses.

13/ And the Iranians have been developing some interesting capabilities in terms of air defenses and they have been using the Houthis as their missile testing agency for years. We've already seen this play out with anti-ship technology.

14/ The Iranians have an added incentive now to engage in such behavior w/ the Houthis, their last remaining potent proxy (Hezbollah is weakened and isolated in Lebanon now that Syria has fallen and Hamas is broken in Gaza). Especially b/c they fear Trump wants to overthrow Iran

15/ Iran is 💯% on the strategic backfoot after having lost Syria as a key conduit and ally supporting their proxies surrounding Israel. What's more, the intro of Turkey into the region now complicates Iran's ability to be on the offensive.

16/ Therefore, demonstrating to the incoming Trump administration, which is populated by a cadre of Iran hawks, that the Houthis (and by extension their Iranian backers) have real capabilities that could stymie US power projection is a key priority for the Shiite Axis.

17/ But just think about this: the Biden Regime has become so incompetent that their Pentagon is floating a cover story of simple incompetence on the part of the US Navy being the cause of the F/A-18F shoot down. That's how far we've fallen.

18/ The Houthis are a serious player. They should be taken seriously and they must be dealt with harshly. I am certain the Trump administration plans to give them the ISIS treatment from Trump's first term. BUT we must recognize this mission will be harder than taking out ISIS.

19/ And failure to reliably knock out the Houthis in Trump's first six months back in office will permanently complicate Trump's ability to restore US deterrence in the Mideast.

20/ Any failure to rapidly restore US deterrence in the region will lead to both more incidents of the sort that we're seeing play out over the Red Sea today and will eventuate in a massive world war from erupting from the geopolitical quicksand of the Mideast.

21/ AS AN ADDENDUM: if the incompetence storyline that the Pentagon is hocking is actually true it’s imperative to understand why. And the why is because the crew of the Gettysburg has likely been under such constant drone & antiship missile attack

22/ they mistook the F/A-18F for enemy fire. That in itself is a crisis and something much worse is set to come in any event unless a fundamental reordering of our policy in the region is undertaken. Remember, Yemen was the site of the USS Cole bombing in 2000.