Aircraft from not only US Navy aircraft carriers, but also from amphibious assault ships were used to protect navigation in the Red Sea, including the AV-8B Harrier II vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.
At the same time, Captain Earl Earhart, a pilot of one of the AV-8B Harriers II from the 231st Marine Corps Aviation Squadron, deployed on the USS Bataan, said that he had shot down a total of seven Yemeni Houthi kamikaze drones during the entire time the US Navy was in the region. If these claims are confirmed, Earhart will become the most effective American pilot in terms of air targets shot down since the Vietnam War, the BBC writes.
According to Captain Earl Earhart of the USMC, they had to reorganize on the fly to use their Harriers as air defense systems. However, these aircraft have the appropriate set of weapons and equipment for such missions – air-to-air missiles of the AIM-120 and AIM-9 types, an onboard 25-mm GAU-12 Equalizer automatic cannon, and an onboard AN/APG-65 radar.
When the AV-8B Harrier II is guided at air targets, one of the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke destroyers is used as a command post, and targeting is provided by the Aegis fire control system.
As for the process of shooting down the Yemeni Houthis’ kamikaze drones over the Red Sea, the pilot of the American Harrier told the following details. According to Earhart, UAVs are shot down mostly at close range, with an aircraft gun. In each case, there is a risk that the aircraft could be hit by debris from the affected drone when it blows up.
The use of short-range air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-9 is severely hampered by the fact that kamikaze drones have a weak thermal signature, making it difficult for infrared GWS to lock onto targets.
The description of this problem is reminiscent of stories about how difficult it is for our MiG-29 pilots to shoot down a Shahed-136
