March 9, 2026
Friendly fire, unfriendly comments
Kuwaiti F/A-18's Triple Friendly Fire Shootdown Gets Stranger by the Day
New video, vanishing posts, and wild theories collide as armchair pilots roast, joke, and panic
TLDR: A new street video appears to show a Kuwaiti fighter mistakenly shooting down U.S. jets over Kuwait; CENTCOM says three were lost to friendly fire and the crews survived. Commenters split between gallows humor and theories about mistaken identity or jamming, highlighting how risky and confusing the skies are.
A shaky street video, a bright streak, and a fireball — and now the internet’s having a full-blown meltdown. A new clip allegedly shows a Kuwaiti F/A-18 firing a heat-seeking Sidewinder missile at a U.S. F-15E at close range, part of the same shocking friendly-fire incident CENTCOM says downed three U.S. jets over Kuwait CENTCOM statement. The footage’s authenticity is still unconfirmed, and some posts now say “no longer available,” which, of course, has commenters screaming “cover-up!” and screenshotting like it’s their job.
The top-voted vibe? Dark humor. One user quipped the Kuwaiti pilot is “two more kills” from ace status, while another joked they were “testing a grok-based targeting system” — AI memes locked and loaded. The thread then splits into two camps: Team Mistaken Identity says the F-15E’s silhouette can resemble an Iranian MiG-29 from above, and Kuwait doesn’t fly the F-15E, so maybe the pilot hadn’t seen one up close. Team Electronic Gremlins blames tech: claims of Iran jamming Link 16 (the planes’ info-sharing network) and IFF (the “friend-or-foe” tag) are spreading fast. Even an ex–Hornet pilot told a reporter this is “very strange,” and a controller mix-up would be “implausible.”
Meanwhile, the real-world stakes are ugly: the region’s tense — Qatar reportedly shot down two Iranian jets the same week — and modern missiles actually firing is a rare, sobering sight. Relief that the F-15 crews ejected collides with meme-fueled chaos as the internet argues: tragic ID fail, tech glitch, or just the fog of war doing its worst?
Key Points
- •New video appears to show a Kuwaiti F/A-18C downing a U.S. F-15E at close range over Kuwait in a friendly-fire incident.
- •CENTCOM stated three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles went down over Kuwait on March 1 due to apparent friendly fire during Operation Epic Fury support.
- •Footage suggests a within-visual-range, tail-aspect engagement likely using an AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking missile.
- •The video shows the F-15E burning in the rear, entering a flat spin, and both crew members ejecting; the F/A-18 is visible nearby.
- •An ex-F/A-18 pilot called the event “very strange,” noting deconfliction challenges; concurrently, Qatar’s F-15QA shot down two Iranian Su-24s near Al Udeid.