This was the explaination I read on the world affairs board regarding the incident.
"Far as Xxxxxx and I could tell it’s the only Hornet gun shot of a Raptor in existence. It was a 27th pilot (but I won’t tell who, not Xxxxxx or I). He was flying a 3,000 foot 300 knot setup against a demo configured super hornet (betting you won’t see the same from a combat configured jet – just a guess). Why they did that and how he ended up there is beyond me – but he did – I’m sure he could have avoided it (unless there was some gross mismatch I don’t know about – like fuel weight).
On the 2nd part – it was a gross violation of the ROE (that part I heard about of course), pass pretty close to the Raptor as the pictures tell the story, it was not a 135 aspect bust – just well inside the bubble, at least with 200 knots of closure and the nose in lead. Nothing like having your fangs through the floor to get a fleeting hero shot on a 130 million dollar jet eh? Pretty dumb move on his part – lucky he missed with his 50 million dollar golden BB. (or however much a super hornet costs these days – at least we know it’s less than a Raptor)…
Yyyyyy
PS – here’s a blurb we sent out a while back – this did circulate all the way through the navy – go figure, even had to answer to guys up on the hill asking questions – sometimes I really miss the Eagle jet…
"The Navy rumors are all false. We’ve flown with them on numerous occasions and they have had as much luck seeing the Raptor as a blind man. The only way we can pay them back for Red Air is with BFM because they can’t find us on BVR setups. Our standard deal with them is “you be our ACT/ACM red air and we’ll throw you a BFM bone every now and then.”
"The attached photos are being sent out across the Navy. They are the first and only shots of a Raptor getting gunned by a Super Hornet. It was a demo-configured E/F flying against XXXXXX. The setup was 9000’ LAB, 300 knots “fights on.” I don’t know how XXXXX ended up in front of the guy but he did get gunned…and nearly speared as well. Note the range, aspect and closure of the shot. FYI – the bubble is 1000’!"