The Yemeni Houthis have improved missiles for attacking ships. The Pentagon is “shocked”

The Yemeni Houthis use advanced missiles for their attacks on ships in the Red Sea. This creates additional risks for international shipping.

This is written by Axios with reference to the main purchaser of weapons of the US Ministry of Defense, Deputy Secretary Bill LaPlante.

"Iʼm an engineer and a physicist, and Iʼve been working with rockets all my career. What I saw about what the Houthis have been doing for the past six months just shocked me," he said.

The Houthi rebels threaten almost every ship that passes by, whether civilian or military. They recently attacked two US Navy destroyers as they passed through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. US Central Command said the US military had intercepted at least eight attack drones, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and four anti-ship cruise missiles.

Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea

In the Red Sea, since November 2023, Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis have continued to attack merchant ships allegedly linked to Israel. Ships in the Gulf of Aden, through which an important trade route passes, are hit by missile and drone strikes.

In January 2024, the United States and Britain launched a military operation against the Houthis in the Red Sea, and in February, the European Union launched its own operation against them. At the end of February, the first ship sank in the Red Sea due to attacks by the Yemeni Houthis. At the beginning of March, it became known that the shipʼs crew members were killed for the first time due to an attack by the Yemeni Houthis. Also, the Yemeni Houthis twice attacked a ship of Ukraine, which is used by Poland.

In mid-March, the US held secret talks with Iran, trying to convince Tehran to use its influence on the Yemeni Houthis to stop attacking ships in the Red Sea.

Houthis and Russia

According to CNN, Russia was preparing to supply the Yemeni Houthis with missiles and military equipment in late July 2024, but abandoned those plans at the last minute after warnings from Saudi Arabia. So Russia allegedly wanted to take revenge on the US administration for allowing Ukraine to strike the territory of the Russian Federation with American weapons.

If the Yemeni Houthis receive anti-ship or anti-aircraft missiles from Russia, it could threaten American forces protecting vessels in the Red Sea from Houthi attacks. Analysts said that if the Russian government sold weapons to the Houthis, one of the opponents of the United States, it would be equivalent to the Americans sending weapons to Ukraine.

In late October 2024, WSJ reported that Russia had been passing data to the Yemeni Houthis for attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea.

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