With the EU announcing the launch of the Red Sea escort mission last week, the German Navy's Saxon class frigate, the F221 Hessen, was ordered to rush to the Red Sea. After arriving at the combat position on Monday of this week, the German warship quickly encountered an "enemy plane" and dealt with it decisively, and then made headlines in various media outlets.
(The German Federal Army announced on Monday that the USS Hesse had arrived in the Red Sea, source: X)
Because they attacked American planes.
What's going on?!
A spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense told the media on Wednesday that the USS Hesse discovered a drone on Monday. Due to the inability to confirm the ownership of the drone, the warship launched two SM-2 anti-aircraft missiles in an attempt to shoot it down. However, due to the fact that all the missiles fired coincidentally experienced technical malfunctions and ultimately fell into the sea, this incident did not lead to more serious consequences.
It was later confirmed that the German warship was targeting the US MQ-9 Reaper reconnaissance aircraft.
As for why such a ridiculous event occurred. The German Ministry of Defense stated that before launching the attack, the German Navy had asked allies "whose plane it belongs to," but no country had claimed it. It is reported that this drone does not belong to the unit participating in the US Red Sea escort mission, so the US Navy did not provide any information after receiving inquiries from German colleagues.
The German Ministry of Defense also announced on Wednesday that the Hesse repelled an attack from the Houser armed forces for the first time on Tuesday evening local time and shot down two drones.
German Defense Minister Pistorius revealed that around 8 pm on Tuesday, a German warship discovered and intercepted a drone, and 15 minutes later successfully shot down a second drone that was approaching the ship.
According to the arrangement, the Hesse will operate together with the EU escort fleet and stay in the Red Sea until the end of April. The subsequent rotating troops will operate continuously for four months.
Missile failure is not the only problem
There is currently no exact explanation or detailed disclosure on why German missiles malfunctioned. But the problem is that the Hesse faced more than just missile reliability.
After the Hesse set sail for the Red Sea, the German Ministry of Defense revealed to lawmakers that the SM-2 Blk IIIA missiles used on the Hesse and similar ships had been discontinued. This means that in order to use the recently started low-speed production of the SM-2 Block IIIC missile, the USS Hesse needs to upgrade its combat management system and may require some hardware modifications.
Florian Hahn, the defense policy spokesperson for the Christian Social Union (CSU) in the Federal Parliament, told the media on Wednesday, "We have only recently discovered that some of the ammunition on board the Hesse cannot be procured. Therefore, when the inventory runs out, the navy will be unable to provide supplies and the frigate must be withdrawn." Hahn accused the German coalition government of concealing this fact, allowing the parliament to authorize deployment without knowing that the frigate had ammunition issues.
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