“Multiple drones interconnected and moving as one with smaller drones below the bigger drones like legs,” shot down a U.S. Air Force F-15E strike fighter over Iran in April, according to a CNN source familiar with the apparently bizarre shootdown. “Real alien s***," they called it.
As you may recall, both the pilot and the backseat weapons systems officer ejected safely, but the WSO's rescue 36 hours later in hostile territory was the stuff of Hollywood movies. But it wasn't until today that we learned the movie looked more like Independence Day than Behind Enemy Lines.
A second source confirmed the almost unbelievable claim, telling CNN that the downed pilot described witnessing a “minefield of drones” in the air.
Exactly how the drones either attacked the F-15E Strike Eagle or enabled an attack by ground forces is either not yet understood, or at least not revealed.
"US intelligence officials disagreed on how to interpret what the F-15 pilot described, and whether the pilot could recount the incident clearly," according to CNN, and a concussion he reportedly suffered during the crash could have affected his memory.
But things get weirder still.
While the pilot's name still hasn't been released, he's believed to be one of the same Eagle pilots accidentally shot down by Kuwait in a friendly fire incident earlier in Operation Epic Fury. According to the Washington Examiner, the unnamed pilot is "believed to be the first fixed-wing Air Force pilot since the Vietnam War era to survive being shot down twice in the same conflict."
He's either extraordinarily lucky or extraordinarily unlucky. Or maybe both. Take your pick.
Let's get back to that alleged drone swarm.
"Had he witnessed a mature capability that US intelligence wasn’t aware of?" CNN's Zachary Cohen and Katie Bo Lillis asked. "A beta test? A mirage in the desert?"
At least for the sake of argument, let's dismiss the suggestion that the pilot's recollection — at least as reported by CNN's sources — was any kind of mirage or a concussion-related hallucination. Losing an F-15E Strike Eagle is serious business, and it deserves to be treated seriously. Also, whatever caused that shootdown required one of the biggest and most complicated rescue missions in history.
So we need answers, not dismissals.
My initial gut reaction — and it's nothing more than that, so appraise accordingly — is that China used Operation Epic Fury to test at least one of its new systems. There are reports, also unconfirmed, that Tehran used or attempted to use Chinese-made anti-ship missiles on U.S. Navy targets during the conflict, and I'd almost be surprised if they hadn't.
If Beijing also possesses some sort of drone-swarm antiaircraft capability, Epic Fury would have been a sweet opportunity to put it to a real-world test. Performing that test well inside Iranian territory also makes sense, given that any survivors — i.e., witnesses — would be less likely to live long enough to get the word out. But we're unbelievably good at getting our people out, as I detailed back in April.
Another option is that Tehran's homegrown drone technology is already advanced enough to destroy American fighters. If that's the case, the Pentagon needs to recalibrate how best to handle any future conflict not just with Iran, but with any country Iran might sell to.
As of today, we just don't know.
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It's a content swarm of pure awomeness.
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