https://www.twz.com/news-features/kuwait...les-report
This article makes some of the same points I did above. Doesn't mean we are correct, but it is confirmation that the analysis makes some sense. I initially ruled out an air-to-air missile because the weather was good and visibility was excellent. Since the AIM-9 is not a BVR weapon the pilot has to visually acquire the target. He should therefore be able to identify it, especially if he is very familiar with the target aircraft type. Any Kuwaiti pilot has seen F-15Es hundreds of times, probably daily. He has undoubtedly flown with them and against them in exercises. No plausible cause for an identification error under these circumstances.
Giving the Kuwaiti pilot the benefit of the doubt, he may have been firing at Shahed class drones but the missile was attracted by the much larger thermal signature of the F-15Es. Decoy flares function in exactly that manner. The setup would have to be "just right" for this to happen, but it is possible.
This article makes some of the same points I did above. Doesn't mean we are correct, but it is confirmation that the analysis makes some sense. I initially ruled out an air-to-air missile because the weather was good and visibility was excellent. Since the AIM-9 is not a BVR weapon the pilot has to visually acquire the target. He should therefore be able to identify it, especially if he is very familiar with the target aircraft type. Any Kuwaiti pilot has seen F-15Es hundreds of times, probably daily. He has undoubtedly flown with them and against them in exercises. No plausible cause for an identification error under these circumstances.
Giving the Kuwaiti pilot the benefit of the doubt, he may have been firing at Shahed class drones but the missile was attracted by the much larger thermal signature of the F-15Es. Decoy flares function in exactly that manner. The setup would have to be "just right" for this to happen, but it is possible.