A U.S. drone was returning as another attacked the base, confusing air defenses.

[Prairie Gates]

Source: NY Times

Air defenses failed to stop a deadly attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan on Sunday because the hostile drone homed in on its target at the same time an American drone was returning to the base, two U.S. officials said Monday.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/29/world/israel-gaza-jordan-news#a-us-drone-was-returning-as-another-attacked-the-base-confusing-air-defenses

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This is horribly bad luck.

[CincyDem]

1. Or surprisingly good strategy.

[marble falls]

2. They are our enemies and they are not stupid.

[Prairie Gates]

3. I def considered that

I'm not sure it's that plausible, but it's certainly a possibility that they launched to coincide with the returning drone.

[IronLionZion]

8. They could have guided the hostile drones to follow the US drone as it was returning

with deadly results

[Cognitive_Resonance]

5. Sucker punch worked once, but that trick is spent. They're standing-by now for the Find Out part. nt

[CincyDem]

6. Yep. "At the time and place of our choosing" seems to be the phrase of the day in DC.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

4. Or, as The Magistrate said in another thread,

this could have been a case of good surveillance by terrorists to determine the patterns of our drone flights.

[Kennah]

7. The work on drone defenses has to be proceeding at a rapid pace. One hopes there are defenses that will soon be fielded.

[pfitz59]

9. Shades of Pearl Harbor

Misidentified aerial contact.

[RobinA]

10. Our Drones

aren't identifiable to us?

[maxsolomon]

11. How can this be blamed on Biden?

Asking for the Right Wing Hate Machine...

[Cherokee100]

12. Do drones

Do drones have Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) capabilities? It's when friendly aircraft send/squawk an electronic code, in addition to being 'painted' by radar. It may be old technology but it worked, when I was a radar operator (many years ago).