My job when active was exactly this. I maintained and operated missile radar. I am just gonna say, many mistakes on this one. The system is setup with redundant checks to stop this kind of nonsense. Someone’s career is over.
Counterpoint: Friendly fire story could be cover for fact planes were hit by enemy missile, fired by Houthis perhaps.
I’m going to make a wild guess that quality of officers and crew has diminished since your time of active service.
I stood (OK, sat) thousands of hours of watch in CIC on 2 Aegis ships, one a cruiser exactly like the Gettysburg. I was CSC, and directly involved in air defense engagements. You are correct. CO and whoever the TAO was are probably done, along with the specific watchstanders that made critical errors. It's also quite probable the Carrier was in the loop throughout the incident.
Fortunately, everything is recorded, so the entire engagement within the Aegis system is recorded, as are the internal and external voice nets the watchstanders were speaking on. From the description of actions before the FF incident was reported, the Gettysburg was engaging drones and anti-ship cruise missiles at the time. Of course, as soon as they realized they shot down an F-18, the flow of information to the public stops. It sounds like the "ASCM" was actually our F-18.
Unless that someone is getting promoted for generating all the correct documentation to maintain the pretense that it was a "friendly fire" incident instead of revealing that it was shot down by a Houthi missile.
The simplest explanation is that they are lying and the plane was shot down by Yemeni forces.