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. The incident is under investigation.
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; it’s unclear if the back-and-forth strikes were ongoing when the Navy jet was shot down.