this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
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According to new reporting from the New York Times, a Houthi surface-to-air (SAM) missile barely missed an American F-35 fifth-generation fighter, the crown jewel of the U.S. fighter inventory. The F-35, participating in Operation Rough Rider against the Houthis, was forced to take evasive action to avoid the missile.

The incident raises questions about the survivability of one of America’s most advanced fighters, and raises concerns over how effective the relatively unsophisticated Houthi air defense system has been at hampering U.S. action.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

Can someone eli5 why a plane successfully evading a missile is cause for panic?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Maybe we should stop FUCKING AROUND if we dont want to find out?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

100% numerous people in the US military know that they're sitting on extremely expensive ships/aircraft/vehicles that are with modern enough weaponry, easy to destroy. A question of whether they have the power, for enough time required, to fix the bloat

Difficult and expensive to develop, manufacturer, maintain. Trapped in service contracts with completely single source suppliers, no alternatives. If it wasn't so expensive to maintain, even just the ammunition, maybe it wouldn't be such a panic situation but well after pretty much constantly being at war since the countries inception, the US is sitting on an albatross of a military. Not just all the equipment but how much employment is tied to supporting the albatross. Albatross multiplied hard with Iraq and Afghanistan paired with all the tax cuts since Reagan. Without Afghanistan and Iraq, probably wouldn't be so wallet concerned for for a good amount longer

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lol I'm sure a blitzed Pete Hegseth will fix these problems.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Apparently, it was DEI keeping the planes in the air, so our new crackerforce is dumping the planes overboard. Won't have to worry about them if we give them to the orcas.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Good for them

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

it evades cheap missiles but at what cost!?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (4 children)

The F-35, participating in Operation Rough Rider against the Houthis, was forced to take evasive action to avoid the missile.

So, they had to, like, dodge a missile? And that is panic worthy?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

It had to rely on a last resort as opposed to its primary defensive system which constricts its design in a big way, its stealth component.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

It's a stealth plane apparently, so I guess it wasn't supposed to be seen, but they saw it.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Supposedly the F35 should never have been seen or detected in the first place.

The fact that a missile was tracking it and they had to dodge it means that these stealth capabilities are lacking.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

What? They can see and hear our blaringly loud war bird spewing kilotonnes of hellfire over their heads? But we paid a gogol of dinaros so it would be invisible!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I heard it's supposed to be super stealthy and really smart, so I guess they didn't expect to even have to do that lol. Otherwise, we could spend less money and use the older less stealthy and technologically advanced jets.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Enter Maverick, ready to fly the old jets.

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