Not part of the US/UK air management picture. Remember they wanted to be part of a separate EU operation. Thus they aren’t getting the friend or foe air picture that the networked US/UK assets are receiving. This means the Reaper drones aren’t on their ops displays in the CIC. Reapers are tracked by SATCOM data links and displayed on a US/UK combined CIC as data fed to the system from the communications data link, not from a friend or foe transponder signal. The US/UK radars see them, but the combat control system matches them with the data from the communications data feed to classify them as friendly. The German ships don’t have that data feed, and their radars show the drones as targets running without transponders. And since their ADA systems are limited, shortrange systems, and the threat environment is high, they fired on what was an unidentified and unresponsive platform, with the radar signature of an attack drone (which a Reaper most certainly is) entering their threat envelope. In other words it looked like an unidentified drone closing on their position and they fired on it.
Apparently, it’s lucky for the Germans that they were not being targeted by the drones.
If my memory is correct, they have an older generation Sea Sparrow system. I also suspect that the German CIC crew is not really well practiced at actual combat environment operations. Afterall, when was the last time that anyone fired a shot in anger at a German Frigate?
I guess it’s good thing they’re inexperience and using old technology…or we would have been out of another 30 million dollars or whatever those drones cost.
The Houthis reportedly now have hypersonic missiles. The report appears to have come from Russian media.
The news about hypersonic missiles comes after Russian media noted NATO chief Stoltenberg recent comments touting the use of NATO-supplies missiles to attack Russian warships in the Black Sea.
Are we seeing an example of tit-for-tat?
“some of the missiles, some of the systems that have been so critical in opening this corridor have been, of course, provided by NATO Allies.” --Jens Stoltenberg
https://www.rt.com/news/594281-nato-stoltenberg-missiles-black-sea-fleet/
See video starting at 28:30 for Stoltenberg’s comments about NATO and Ukranian operations in the Black Sea:
