The crew of the USS Gettysburg was using a newly upgraded $600 million anti-aircraft system for the first time in live action when they mistakenly targeted two U.S. Navy FA/18 Hornets on Dec. 21 off the coast of Yemen, forcing the crew of one to eject into the Red Sea.
Gettysburg, a 33-year-old Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, arrived in the Red Sea on Dec. 17 as part of the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier battlegroup after departing Norfolk, Virginia, in September.
On Dec. 21—as Houthis launched drone and missile attacks on military ships and commercial shipping in the Red Sea—the crew engaged its AN/SPY-1B multifunction air defense radar, new AN/SPQ-9B radar, and modified Mk 41 Vertical Launch System installed during a nine-year-long modernization period. The work was completed in June; three months before the cruiser was deployed….