Godspeed to the Houthis.

Can someone eli5 why a plane successfully evading a missile is cause for panic?

Maybe we should stop FUCKING AROUND if we dont want to find out?

Wait, an f35? THAT F35? The super expensive, country sinking cost, MULTIPLE TRILLION dollar (with a capital T, that's X,000,000,000,000 USD), super late, overbudget, multiple decade long development (80s-2010s?), the "that's too expensive, cut everything that made it unique out" F-35?

The F-35 program that KEEPS getting MORE expensive?

The F-35 that, if you look at a pie chart of ALL of United States budget, would be a singular visible chunk?

The F-35 project that's commonly cited when learning about logical fallacies as an example of sunk cost fallacy?

100% numerous people in the US military know that they're sitting on extremely expensive ships/aircraft/vehicles that are with modern enough weaponry, easy to destroy. A question of whether they have the power, for enough time required, to fix the bloat

Difficult and expensive to develop, manufacturer, maintain. Trapped in service contracts with completely single source suppliers, no alternatives. If it wasn't so expensive to maintain, even just the ammunition, maybe it wouldn't be such a panic situation but well after pretty much constantly being at war since the countries inception, the US is sitting on an albatross of a military. Not just all the equipment but how much employment is tied to supporting the albatross. Albatross multiplied hard with Iraq and Afghanistan paired with all the tax cuts since Reagan. Without Afghanistan and Iraq, probably wouldn't be so wallet concerned for for a good amount longer

Millennium Challenge 2002.

That's when we learned that low tech can beat high tech in this manner.

Did they learn the lesson at DOD? Of course not. They demoted the guy who won and made him play out a cosplay battle where America Wins!

The F-35, participating in Operation Rough Rider against the Houthis, was forced to take evasive action to avoid the missile.

So, they had to, like, dodge a missile? And that is panic worthy?

Good for them

So... the article describes that:

... the simplistic nature of the [Houthi Anti Air] systems also helps them to avoid earlier detection by America’s advanced equipment. “Many of the [SAMs] are also improvised, leveraging non-traditional passive infrared sensors and jury-rigged air-to-air missiles that provide little to no early warning of a threat, let alone an incoming attack,”

and:

but the Houthis claim that the Barq-1 and Barq-2 [Iranian AA missle systems] have maximum ranges of 31 miles and 44 miles and can engage targets at altitudes of 49,000 feet and 65,000 feet, respectively.

with some of these missiles being:

capable of firing Taer variants also reportedly have electro-optical and/or infrared camera to aid in target acquisition, identification, and tracking.”

... So I find it rather odd to describe passive IR guided AA missiles as 'non-traditional'.

I think a better phrase would be 'novel' or 'unaccounted for'.

Passive IR missiles of different exact specifications are... pretty common through the entire history of ... just missiles, in general.

Jet engine exhaust is extremely hot, and it would seem the F35 is not actually as good at masking it as previously thought, probably when its flying away from the missile launcher and is thus showing its big hot ass... if passive IR + electro optical missiles can get this close.

('electro-optical' is a fancy term for basically a visual spectrum camera + computer tracking an identified target... you know, like a snapchat face filter...)

Don't worry, folks. Pete Hegseth's in charge. This is fine.

TBF, taking down an advanced USA fighter jet is a tad less impressive when they are apparently falling into the sea on a regular basis

I have a soft spot for new planes being shot down by "outdated" technologies.

[translations, copypasted, so you don't have to visit the source on reddit]

You’d think evading something would be a success

The relevant bit from the times article:

Several American F-16s and an F-35 fighter jet were nearly struck by Houthi air defenses,

I think the fact that they weren't shot down says more.