The USS Gettysburg was involved in a friendly fire incident on Dec. 22 while conducting operations in the Middle East. (Photo courtesy of US Navy)
SURFACE NAVY 2025 — Flanked by his surface warfare and air warfare type commanders, the Navy’s second most senior officer this morning started this year’s annual Surface Navy Association symposium off with a solemn message.
“On December 22, USS Gettysburg fired on US Navy F/A-18s. Thankfully, no one was hurt,” Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jim Kilby said. “As a warfighting organization, we must learn from this, and we’ve got to take those real time-lessons and apply them. And I’m committing to you that we’re going to do that.”
It was a drastically different tone than what usually begins this niche-yet-consistently packed conference held just a few miles from the Pentagon in Crystal City, Va., each year. Kilby was referring to the friendly fire incident involving a Navy cruiser that mistakenly downed an F/A-18 Hornet in the Middle East, where the service has been fending off Houthi attacks now for 15 months. US Central Command at the time said the crew safely ejected.
Kilby said immediately following the incident, the service initiated three separate investigations. First is an inquiry into the incident itself, which the Navy calls a “JAGMAN,” short for “Manual of the Judge Advocate General.” A second review is being done to assess the deployed forces in the associated carrier strike group. These first two reviews are being led by flag officers, while the third review — compiling safety lessons learned — is being done by the Naval Safety Center, according to the VCNO.
“I am adamant that we will preserve this investigative process and get a deeper understanding of what’s happening. Discussing the details of what the strike group commander did immediately following this event … at this stage is premature,” said Kilby. “Facts are still being gathered. I do not want to risk this investigation by [having] a partially informed conversation today. I recognize that this is dissatisfying to many of you.”
The remarks from Kilby represent some of the first that senior Navy leadership has made since the Dec. 22 incident. They follow months of operations involving the service’s carrier strike groups taking down hundreds of drone and missile threats — a point that service leadership back in Washington, DC, has been eager to praise.
“We’re all proud of our sailors. That’s not what I want to talk about today,” Kilby said at the start of the panel.
What followed the VCNO’s remarks was a higher-level overview of lessons learned presented by the surface warfare boss, Vice Adm. Brendan McLane and the air warfare boss, Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, as well as their respective subordinates, Rear Adm. Joseph Cahill and Rear Adm. Douglas Verissimo.
Most of those lessons focused around moving data back and forth quickly between the fleet and ashore as well as the different communities — aviation, surface — training together more effectively.
And as Kilby mentioned at the start of the panel, in the interest of the ongoing investigations, the flags declined to take any audience questions.
